


The Devolution of Cedric Diggory (AKA: How a Hufflepuff Became Popular!)

by HemsonTenths



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark Cedric Diggory, M/M, Mental Instability, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Socially Awkward Cedric Diggory, Stalking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-09 23:22:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 41,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17414504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HemsonTenths/pseuds/HemsonTenths
Summary: So for the first time in his, thus far, meaningless life; Cedric Diggory aspired to do something more than the bare minimum. All because of Harry Potter. Perhaps this was the incentive the Sorting Hat had been talking about. And so began his evolution.





	1. Chapter 1

One:

_The chorus of voices that was almost deafening moments ago was now muffled under the thick, aged fabric covering Cedric's ears. He closed his eyes, waiting passively for whatever judgement he would be sentenced. It didn't matter what house he ended up in, his parents had said, they'd be proud of him no matter what. So see? It didn't matter at all._

" _What a boring little thing you are." the voice was deep and wise, but dispassionate. "You have the potential to be something of worth, but no one to give you the incentive to try."_

_The little boy frowned at this. Potential? Surely he had it in spades! His parents had always said that he was the best thing that ever happened to this world._

" _Ha! They were lying, boy. HUFFLEPUFF!"_

The train gave an especially strong lurch and Cedric's head smacked against the wall he'd been leaning against, rousing him from his sleep and pulling a chuckle from the boy who was sitting across from him. With a groan, he sat up glaring at his best (and only) friend Jonathan (Jona) Davies.

"That's what you get," snickered the shorter boy. "Falling asleep while I was telling you about my summer. Y'know if I bore you that much you ought to just tell me, I could spend my time doing more productive things."

Still rubbing the side of his head, Cedric replied. "It's not that, I just stayed up late finishing homework."

Jona sighed, face reproachful. "I'm not the best student either Ced, but you can't complain about your shit grades when you procrastinate so much. You're lucky your parents are so lenient. If I had as many Acceptables as you my mother would tear me a new one, not to mention what Roger would do being a Raven and all."

"Yeah yeah," sighed the brunette loftily, rolling his eyes. "It's not like it really matters, my Dad has a position waiting for me at the DRCMC as soon as I graduate, all I have to do is get an Exceeds Expectations in Care on my NEWTS and I'll be fine."

Jonathan sighed and crossed his arms, but didn't comment, instead returning to recounting his family trip to Bermuda. Cedric only half listened to his friend as he described the beautiful pink beaches and warm, clear water. He feared that if he listened any closer, he may feel a spike of jealousy. The last time he'd gone anywhere with his parents had been for a Ministry Gala, however his father had been rather reluctant to show off his boring unimpressive son to his coworkers.

He shoved down his negative thoughts and turned his grey eyes to stare dispassionately out the window, watching the darkening scenery fly by.

Some while later Jonathan stopped his incessant prattle and they both basked in silence, Cedric lost in his own thoughts and Jona lost in a book. When the elderly woman came by with her trolley of sweets, conversation bubbles back up.

"You read the Daily, yeah? This is gonna be Harry Potter's first year." commented Jona around a cauldron cake.

Cedric had heard his mother mention it over breakfast at one point or another, but had honestly forgotten all about it. "Yeah? That'll be interesting, I s'pose. What house d'you think he'll end up in?"

The black-haired boy hummed thoughtfully, stretching his legs across the seat rather disgracefully. "Dunno. You know, Skeeter wrote something about him maybe going to Beauxbatons, so maybe he won't be in  _any_  house!"

Cedric outright laughed at this, spilling Every-Flavoured beans all over the floor of the carriage. The day Skeeter wrote anything completely truthful would be the day the whole world went up in flames. "Skeeter also wrote that Fudge and Bagman were having a sordid affair, so I wouldn't put much stock into her."

"You have a point there." Nodded the shorter boy as he unwrapped his fourth cauldron cake in a row. "Probably Gryffindor, right? He's like the poster boy for golden Gryffindor heroes or whatever."

"I guess," frowned Cedric watching his friend with a mixture of disgust and awe and he scarfed down his fifth cauldron cake. "It'd be nice if he were in Hufflepuff though."

Jona guffawed, nearly choking. "As  _if_  when's the last time anyone  _remotely_  cool was in Hufflepuff?!"

Well, he couldn't argue with that.

-0v0-

It was the loudest the Great Hall had ever been, which was saying something since the Weasley twins had once spiked the whole Slytherin table with voice heightening draught in second year. Yet somehow it was even louder than that and all because of one little first year who just so happened to be the savior of the Wizarding World.

Cedric and Jona sat side by side towards the end of the Hufflepuff table, observing the crowd of tiny students shuffling their way into the Hall. All around them, they could hear people heatedly jabbering about Harry Potter, craning their necks to get a look at him. Cedric found it a bit distasteful to be honest, but couldn't say that he wasn't curious about the boy as well. He like every other Pure or Half Blood in the hall had been spoon-fed stories of the valiant and brave savior (well, excluding the darker families, whose stories were probably not so praiseful) and even though he was at an age where he should realize that those stories probably weren't entirely accurate, Cedric still couldn't help but lean forward a bit when McGonagall called out 'Potter Harry' in her usual, strict tone.

After fully taking in Potter's visage Cedric sent a glance in Jona's direction, the other boy looking back at him, no doubt with the same thought in mind.

' _That's_  Harry Potter?'

In all truthfulness Cedric had already had a preconceived idea as to what Harry Potter would look like. Something along the lines of, tall, chiseled and muscular (which was rather illogical thinking about it now, he was only a first year, after all), but this kid was really quite the opposite. Cedric was vividly reminded of a mouse as he watched the tiny, messy haired boy skitter up to the Sorting Hat, large green eyes looking every which way. He almost laughed when the hat fell all the way to the boy's shoulders, obscuring his pale face from view.

His sorting was long, far longer than Cedric's, far longer than any sorting he'd ever seen, in fact. Cedric wondered if perhaps the longer it took, the more important that person was in the grand scheme of things, if so, he was rather proud of the full forty seconds he spent on the stool. The room had hushed from its deafening roar, everyone on the edge of their seats, waiting with bated breath for the verdict. After at least five minutes (Cedric was certain some sort of record had to have been broken) the hat declared 'GRYFFINDOR!' with a prideful yell and the room practically erupted.

He couldn't help but compare himself to the minuscule child who was now making his way towards the overjoyed table. When Cedric had been sorted, he'd gotten little more than a few polite claps. At the time he hadn't thought much of it, not really even caring what house he'd be sorted into in the first place, but now...

Well now he felt a bit disappointed in himself.

Jona's elbow to the ribs roused him from the downward spiral that was his thoughts. "Told you he'd end up in Gryffindor."

"Yeah," nodded Cedric, grey eyes glinting in the candle light as he stared at the Gryffindor table. Potter really was tiny, and so very timid, looking more like a Hufflepuff than anything else. He wondered how it was that someone so diminutive could still somehow end up in the house of heroes, while Cedric; a Pureblood and a Ministry boy still somehow ended up in the house for those who didn't fit anywhere else. "You sure told me."

Maybe he ought to observe a bit longer, there must be something he's missing.

-0v0-

"Did you hear about Potter?"

"I heard that he was -"

"No not that one-"

"Apparently-"

"Did anyone tell you that Potter-?"

"No way! Well did you hear that-"

It turned out that Cedric's resolution to keep and ear out for talk of Potter was unnecessary. He wouldn't be able to avoid all the whispered rumors even if he tried. Potter was the non-stop talk of the school, not that the boy had really done anything thus far to garner all of this attention (well, outside of vanquishing the Dark Lord), but people seemed to be more than willing to make up reasons to talk about the poor first-year. It was frankly a bit disgusting in Cedric's opinion, but at the same time, it did make him wonder if there  _was_  something more to Potter than what happened in his infancy.

Jonathan and Cedric had likened themselves to observers to all of the madness. Both of them were logical enough and magnanimous enough not to put much stock into the majority of the rumors floating about, but they still found quite a bit of amusement in some of them. The one about Potter being a proxy for the Minister of Magic was Cedric's personal favorite, however it was quickly replaced after overhearing Marietta Edgecombe at dinner after the first-year's flying lessons.

"Potter's been accepted onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team! Apparently they're making an exception despite his age. Makes sense, considering he's reserve for Puddlemere United."

Both Cedric and Jona outright laughed at that, nearly doubling over as they imagined, the tiny skittish Gryffindor trying to mount a broom without going into outright palpitations. However they were quickly proven wrong, when the next morning a suspiciously broom-shaped parcel landed in front of a baffled Potter at breakfast.

Jonathan found the whole ordeal rather hilarious, laughing to the point of hiccups at the look on the Slytherin Captain's face at the sight of the broom, but for Cedric it had the opposite effect. Something about the genuine, humble surprise on Potter's face was sobering. In that moment, as the Hufflepuff-Nobody stared from across the hall at the Gryffindor Golden-Boy he felt- well, he felt  _something_. Potter seemed so genuinely surprised, as though he didn't expect for the entire world to be handed to him on a silver platter just because he happened to save it in infancy. As though he didn't expect to be appreciated simply for existing.

Modesty, Cedric might suppose.

Odd really, to be truthful, something like modesty or timidity was never something that Cedric imagined when he pictured the wizarding savior. The Boy-Who-Lived was supposed to be confident, self-assured nearly to the point of cockiness, but not quite, never quite that much. But, looking at Potter now, gazing at the sweet smile of genuine thankfulness...

It made him feel sub-par, truthfully. And interested. Deeply interested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea for this story kind of came to me when I was thinking of a Cedric/Harry concept. I have an obsessive love for obsessive love so it all kind of bled into this. I'm aware that Cedric is very OOC and he will really only become more so, so if you aren't interested in a darkish, mentally unstable Cedric then this story wont be for you. If you want my honest opinion, I think people will find this story to be rather boring. It is going to be predominately from Cedric's perspective and I portray him as an introspective and uninteresting guy overall. Harry will not even really speak to Cedric until mid-Third-Year so, don't hold your breath on that. Also, the chapters will be getting a bit longer, so please don't be discouraged.
> 
> Lastly, here are the ages and blood statuses of the characters that will most likely feature the most in this story (excluding Roger Davies, I just put him in there for perspective on his brother).
> 
> Harry Potter- 11, Halfblood (1st year) July, 31st  
> Cedric Diggory- 14, Pureblood (3rd year) September, 20th  
> Jonathan Davies- 13, First Gen. Pureblood (3rd year) March 17th  
> Roger Davies- 13, First Gen. Pureblood (3rd year) December 2nd
> 
> This fic was originally posted on FFN and I plan to continue posting to both there and AO3.
> 
> I have the majority of this story planned out, but feedback is always welcome and taken into consideration.


	2. Chapter 2

Two:

Potter was something of an oxymoron to Cedric. The elder Hufflepuff had taken to observing the boy whenever the opportunity presented itself, simply gauging his reactions and mannerisms. The more Cedric watched the boy, the more he wondered how he ended up in Gryffindor, yet at the same time there was this...  _way_  about Potter that made it seem like he didn't belong anywhere else. It was baffling to say the least.

Even now, in late October after the rumors had (slightly) died down, Cedric remained, observing Potter. It was a bit relaxing, oddly enough. Despite being only a few meters away Cedric and Potter were worlds apart, and watching him like this almost made it feel like Cedric were at one of those Muggle cinemas. That train of thought made him feel a bit guilty, as if he were considering the boy as no more than entertainment. But, he consoled himself in the fact that everyone else was doing the same thing, and making up petty rumors to go along with it.

With Halloween coming up it brought a bit of distraction for Cedric's Potter-watching. Like any other healthy third year, Cedric was rather excited for the Halloween feast as well as receiving his annual Samhain gift from his traditional pureblood grandparents. Around the end of October everyone got a little antsy at Hogwarts and it was putting Cedric in good spirits, however they were tinged with curiosity upon overhearing the youngest Weasley talking to Potter on their way back from Quidditch practice one afternoon.

" _What do you mean you don't like Halloween? I thought it was even better for Muggles, don't they give out candy and dress up?" The redhead had shouted in an almost affronted tone, to the shyly cowering Potter._

" _Yes, well the Dursleys never really approved in me participating in those traditions much. Halloween was always a regular day for me except that..." The small boy trailed off at this, his eyes becoming a bit distant looking, though it was a bit hard for Cedric to tell as he was watching them out the corner of his eye._

" _Except what?"_

" _Well, I always have the_ worst  _of luck on Halloween."_

After hearing this, the Hufflepuff found himself wondering what sorts of holidays Potter did like. Halloween had always been his favorite, since he tended to find the ones that involved family and gift giving smothering. Perhaps Potter was more of the family type since he'd lost his parents and all. That would make a bit of sense, he supposed. Cedric really had a hard time getting the whole big happy family appeal, though. Or maybe Potter was the selfish type, who considered their birthday to be the best holiday of the year. He thought that unlikely though, Potter seemed like he'd forget his own birthday if no one reminded him.

Bottom line is these were the kind thoughts that were occupying his time when he'd stare listlessly off into space, paying no mind to whatever his professor might be droning on about a few feet away. Maybe he was getting a bit excessive, but he didn't really care.

When the Halloween feast finally came upon him, Cedric found it a bit lackluster in all honesty. Perhaps because he'd already experienced it twice before or maybe because he knew that Potter was a table away, staring morosely at his food. Whatever the reason he found himself growing quickly bored of the festivities and tried to occupy himself by speaking to Jona.

"How do you think the game will go tomorrow?" he asked, interrupting the boy's intense focus on his pumpkin pie.

"Mmm?" he grumbled around a mouthful of pie, looking caught off guard. He swallowed almost comically. "Fine I s'pose. I think Gryffindors' a shoe-in judging by the look on Wood's face."

He motioned towards the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, who was grinning so widely as he spoke animatedly to Percy Weasley that he looked almost manic.

"I think so too." nodded Cedric, dragging his eyes away from the sneering Gryffindor prefect to stare at Jona who was still stuffing his face. "Although, Potter seems rather on edge, don't you think?"

Not even bothering to look up from his food, Jona waved a lofty hand in dismissal. "At worst he'll suck, and they'll throw in their reserve seeker, right? I doubt he'd get hurt, not even Wood is crazy enough to let a first-year  _actually_ play."

He felt his gaze drifting towards the little seeker against his own accord. "He's just so small..."

Jona opened an ice cream-filled mouth to reply, but quickly snapped it closed when Quirrell came hurtling into the hall.

"TROLLS IN THE DUNGEON!"

Maybe Potter's bad luck was catching.

-0v0-

Cedric had never really been one to watch Quidditch. He enjoyed playing it well enough, which should be apparent by the fact that he played reserve seeker for Hufflepuff. But Quidditch had never really been able to hold his attention long when he was sitting on the sidelines. It was just another thing that differentiated Cedric from his father, he supposed.

Generally on a pleasantly chilly October morning like this, Cedric would be somewhere on the grounds, most likely dozing under a tree, Quidditch match in session or otherwise (not including one that involved Hufflepuff, of course, he was still obligated to attend even if it was unlikely that he'd be playing at all.)

Today however, Cedric like everyone else in the school had trudged down to the Quidditch pitch after breakfast, moving as quickly as his legs would allow (which was rather quick in all honesty, he'd been blessed with long legs) so that he may get a good seat in the Hufflepuff stands. Jona was huffing and puffing at his side, trying to keep up with his more athletic friend, a look of stark confusion on his face as he practically broke into a light jog.

"What's the rush, Ced?" questioned the shorter boy as they finally settled into their creaky, wooden, front-row seats. "I'm surprised you wanted to come at all, you usually just lay 'round most games that you aren't obligated to attend."

"Yes, well..." began Cedric, finally tearing his eyes away from where he'd been scanning the field while Flint directed the Slytherins through warm ups. "I wanted to see Potter's first game y'know? Bound to be interesting."

Jonathan scoffed with a roll of his eyes, crossing his arms. "You're just like the rest of those vultures, Ced, lookin' to watch the poor kid fail in his first game."

"I don't want him to fail!" exclaimed the taller boy, feeling a bit more affronted than was probably reasonable. It was true though, Potter was just a little kid Cedric didn't want to see his hopes get crushed before they could ever really begin. "I just wanna see how he'll do! Hufflepuff is gonna play against him eventually, I ought to at least see if he's a good as Wood brags."

And  _boy_  did Wood brag. He'd been running up and down the school, shoving it in all the other Quidditch Captains' face (and really anyone that'll listen) that he got the best seeker to ever grace Hogwarts;  _Harry Potter_.

"That's assuming the boy doesn't fuck this game up so badly that Wood kicks him off the team."

Cedric felt a surge of anger at that remark, sending a frosty glare in his friend's direction. "Why d'you want him to fail so badly? You act like he doesn't have a chance."

"Oh c'mon man, it's nothing like that, I'd hate to see the kid get hurt, but you have to hear what everyone  _besides_  the Gryffindors are saying. Not to mention, you've seen him, he looks like a strong gust of wind would send him to China."  
The larger boy grimaced, but couldn't help but concede to Jona's point. Potter was tiny and certainly didn't look like he was cut out to play any sort of sport. But, something inside of him really just wanted him to do well. Why he didn't really know, perhaps because he was the underdog, or perhaps because Cedric just felt something of a kindred spirit to the shy and reserved Potter. Either way, he refused to just assume the boy was going to fail.

A smack to the back jarred him from his thoughts. "Don't worry about it man, ya' never know, maybe the kid will be the next Charlie Weasley, although then our team will be screwed, eh?"

However, Potter turned out to be more than just the next Charlie Weasley. Though it was perhaps premature to say that as he had yet to catch the snitch, it was very clear by the way the boy zipped and glided about the field that he knew his way around a broom. Watching Potter fly was almost rejuvenating for Cedric. The boy's exuberance and grace riveted the Hufflepuff in a way that a Quidditch match had never done before. Just watching the boy made him want to run for his own broom and take off into the sky. Cedric didn't seem to be the only one effected either, judging by the crowd's unrelenting stares as Potter circled fluidly around the stadium, green eyes surveying the field for any sign of the snitch.

Cedric had been genuinely enjoying the game, until Potter's broom started bucking this way and that. It was a sort of state of confusion at first for most people, wondering if this was some sort of attention stunt or if Potter's inability to fly was finally rearing its head. But, for Cedric and a few others it was an immediately jolt of panic. His grey eyes took in the look of distress on the boy's face as his broom began to drift higher and higher, bucking and rolling in an attempt to throw him off.

"Why isn't anyone doing anything?!" Cedric hissed as his hand clenched to a death-grip around Jona's upper arm. "Don't they see him broom is malfunctioning?!"

"There's nothin' they can do." replied Jonathan in a strained voice, attempting to pry Cedric's fingers off his arm. "His broom moving too much for them to do anything."

His panic and fear mounted into a crescendo when the broom managed to finally buck Potter off, leaving the child hanging by the tips of his fingers, holding on for dear life as his huge green eyes were blown even larger with terror. Cedric stood to his feet at this, and Jona had to actively pull him back down in fear that his friend might throw himself over the banister separating the stands from the 60 foot drop below.

When Potter at last succeeded in pulling himself back onto his no longer bucking broom there was a collective sigh of relief as the confused, panicking pack of students settled down. But when Potter went on to almost swallow the snitch leading to one of the fastest Quidditch game yet, Cedric, like everyone else (well besides the Slytherins) jumped to his feet in cheer.

As he made his way back to the Hufflepuff common room, Cedric reflected a bit on how what an effect Potter's presence had had on his enjoyment of the game. Never before had a Quidditch match been able to invoke such a myriad of emotions from Cedric. It left him both reeling and in awe at the same time. It made him want to aspire to be something a bit more, to try harder and maybe just  _maybe_ Potter could notice Cedric the way Cedric noticed Potter.

So for the first time in his, thus far, meaningless life; Cedric Diggory aspired to do something more than the bare minimum.

All because of Harry Potter. Perhaps this was the incentive the Sorting Hat had been talking about.

And so began his evolution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, yeah. I hope it's becoming a bit clearer about how uninteresting and non-gregarious Cedric is. I've noticed that people have different perspectives on what the majority of Hufflepuffs are like. For example some people imagine Hufflepuff as friendly and outgoing, while others see them as shy and cowardly. I'm going more for the second option, but it's not like their going to be a bunch of kids with GAD or something, they just have small friend groups and aren't prone to social situations overall.
> 
> I realize it's pretty choppy and awkward and honestly, I doubt it's gonna get any better from here. I don't claim to be a good writer, I just hope someone out there will find a little enjoyment in this.


	3. Chapter 3

Three:

Cedric had always been a rather lazy boy. It was apparent by the way he lumbered into class seconds before the bell rang and the way he would write as little as allowed on his essays (if he bothered to write them at all), even by the way he'd opt to slide down the banisters on occasion instead walking down the stairs. So, when he set his sights on getting Harry Potter to notice him in some positive manner, Cedric had hoped to make it easy as possible. In all honesty, he'd just been planning to strike up a quick chat with the boy in the library or something of that caliber, but after giving it further thought the idea left him... cold.

He realized that he wanted to be noticed without forcing it and more importantly, he wanted to  _remembered._  Perhaps he was asking for too much, but he really couldn't stand the idea of Potter forgetting him minutes after their introduction.

Even with these parameters, it seemed like an easy enough concept; just get Potter alone and do something that would interest the kid. And maybe it  _would_  have been easy if it weren't Harry Potter, the best friend of the two most clingy Gryffindors on the planet.

The two kids followed the boy everywhere he went, practically hanging off his arm! It made Cedric want to tear his hair out, because what had first seemed like a viable, easy task somehow became mission impossible with the addition of two first-year brats!

Thusly, Cedric decided that he hadn't any choice but to up the ante and do something that would grab the attention of the whole school. However he'd been having a hard time coming up with a way to do so. Sure, it was fairly easy to get the school talking about you if you did something stupid enough, but positive attention? And enough positive attention that a first year in another house would notice? Well, that was gonna take some work. It came down to altering his image in the end, if he became a more impressive person all together, then he'd have to be recognized.

Popularity was the name of his game.

So, since that little revelation at Potter's first Quidditch game, Cedric had been using any opportunity to watch the trendiest students of Hogwarts to see what it exactly it was that made them so favorable. That is one thing that Cedric's always rather liked doing, observing, people watching one might call it. It had always been something he did when he didn't feel like paying attention to anything of relevance (class for example) and now his little hobby was useful for once.

From what he observed it seemed that the most popular people all shared a certain specific mixture of qualities, more or less. It was almost like an odd sort of spectrum and the people who had the most popularity were almost always on the most extreme parts of said-spectrum minus a few qualities.

For example Cho Chang, Percy Weasley, and Penelope Clearwater were all very intelligent individuals who exceeded in almost every class and were admired by their classmates because of it. But at the same time many people raved about Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint despite the fact that the two were dumber than a bag of rocks when it came to anything that wasn't Quidditch related, not to mention Laura Madley and Eleanor Branstone who only seem to open their mouths to giggle ditzily.

Another example was how some of the well-like students were very gregarious like Michael Corner, Cormac Mclaggen and Marietta Edgecombe who would honestly talk the ear off of any poor sod who was dumb enough to listen. While on the opposite side of the spectrum, you had people like Harry Potter, Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass who wouldn't speak to anyone without being spoken to. Even worse there were the ones like Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson who were downright nasty to most people.

The same could be said for athleticism, sexual experience and temperament.

It was downright dizzying that he couldn't find any apparent consistencies. In the end, Cedric just decided that he would just have to go down the path of a textbook popular kid as he still couldn't figure out what most people liked about half of the people who were at the top of their school's food chain. Just the thought of it made him grimace at how long and arduous that would be.

As a last ditch effort, Cedric had owled his parents in late November, asking if he could stay in Hogwarts for Christmas break. From what he'd heard Potter would be staying during the break, so there would be a very high possibility of Cedric encountering him during Yule with the castle practically empty and maybe getting the boy's attention without having to go through all the trouble of actually becoming and interesting person.

His hopes were dashed, however when his parents sent an almost affronted reply exclaiming that Yule was a time for family and that they'd missed him over the school year.

So, that is what led to Cedric now disembarking the Hogwarts express, being pulled into his mother's grasping arms before he could nary say hello. Feeling her warm embrace, as comforting as it had once been, only seemed to cause his annoyance with his parents to spike, drawing up reminders that if they hadn't insisted he returned home then he wouldn't have to go through so much trouble over something that could have been easy. Therefore, he quickly removed himself from his mother's grasp and nodded curtly in his father's direction before making a beeline for the floo.

As soon as he stepped out of the entrance hall fireplace and dusted off his robes, Cedric headed straight upstairs to his room barely granting their House Elf Tinky a distracted 'hello' before he locked himself in his room. His trunk clattered to the floor and he fell face-first onto his bed, bouncing as he hit the soft surface. He rolled over staring soberly out the window as the first few flurries of snow fell from the sky, beginning to coat the frozen ground below in a sparkling blanket of white. In a quick motion he drew his curtains closed. He reached for a pillow, pulling it to his chest as he curled in on himself, closing his eyes.

Cedric ignored his mother's calls at dinner time, glad that despite them being no doubt curious at his behavior, his parents still kept their distance. He spent the next 17 hours attempting to sleep off his grumpiness before he could snap at someone. He was rarely one for foul temperament, but when it came about he had to use a lot of self-control not to do something stupid.

He awoke the next morning to the sound of his mother announcing breakfast. He decided that his childish moodiness had gone on long enough and made his way down to the informal dining room, trying to ignore the fact the he still did not really want to see his parents. They spoke stiltedly over toast and eggs, his parents becoming more and more tentative as they slowly realized that Cedric was in some sort of funk. He was thankful for this as they could've pressed him for details rather than leaving him be. After thanking his mother for breakfast and bidding his parents a good morning he trudged back upstairs.

Inwardly he was cursing himself for wasting the entire previous day brooding; his ideas needed to be put into action at once, especially considering that he still had a lot of planning to do if he wanted everything to go smoothly.

He needed to think. Truthfully, he felt this would be his most favorite part of the process. He'd always been the introspective sort, not in a scholarly manner or anything, he just sometimes imagined things. Like, what it'd be like to play an actual Quidditch game on the Hufflepuff team or how Snape would react if he ever made a perfect potion or what his parents would say if he ever got more than an Acceptable on his report card. Little fantasies, he supposed.

But, now he could actually put it to good use. Instead of fantasizing about things like that, he could finally be the Cedric he always wished he could be.

Strange really, it's not like he  _couldn't_ do any of those things before. There was nothing stopping him, but somehow it felt he'd crossed some sort of threshold despite being unchanged overall. Maybe it was confidence he'd been lacking.

But, then that begs the question of where all this confidence was coming from now.

Well whatever, he was getting sidetracked, and his floor would probably be very appreciative if he stopped his rapid pacing. He sighed, plopping in the chair in front of his desk.

His hardest task would most likely be to get 'smart' so studying was his first order of business. He groaned that the thought, but still reached into his trunk pulling out his unopened potions book, slamming it onto his desk and with a rather dramatic flourish, opened it.

After staring at the first the first page of Intermediate Potions Making (Year Three) he realized that he had not processed a single word on the page. The concept made him want to just crawl back in bed and forget that school ever existed. He almost did so, but as he stepped toward the inviting piece of furniture, his eyes drifted over the potted *white anemones on the sill of his still closed window, their green stems sticking out starkly against his brown curtains. Such a vibrant shade of green that invigorated him so effortlessly, a green that vividly reminded him of-

Well, he supposed if he didn't understand his potions book from this year then he'd just start from the very beginning. He lumbered back to his desk reaching for Magical Drafts and Potions (Year One) along the way.

This was going to be a long winter break.

-0v0-

Cedric hated Christmas. Not in the sort of Snape-ish I-hate-all-things-joyful way. There was nothing wrong with the holiday and he rather liked to both give and receive gifts. The issue was his  _parents._

For most of the year, Cedric would spend his time wishing his parents would pay more attention to him. And then when Christmas time rolled around, he remembered how  _fucking annoying_  his parents were. The holidays, for Cedric was an endless barrage of stupid questions and empty praise.

So on Christmas morning after all the wrapping paper had been decimated to piles of rubbish on the floor surrounding the three Diggorys, Cedric tuned out his parent's incessant chatter about how happy they were to be able to spend quality time together and instead wondered what was going on in the Gryffindor tower on this snowy morning.

He imagined Potter tearing away at wrapping paper, staring at his gifts in that bashful thankfulness that had colored his face upon receiving his broom. With that thought in mind, Cedric could admit that he didn't  _quite_  hate Christmas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's an odd sort of chapter, I think. Cedric's thoughts are very meandering and hard to follow in my opinion. I also feel like there are very large jumps in time, I hope that doesn't deter people. Things will flow more as Cedric become more enamored, but until then it's just gonna be a choppy mess. I also was hoping that I made it clear that Cedric doesn't really know the difference between people who are often spoken of and people who are actually popular.
> 
> *Anemone- Forsaken (Bad luck or ill omens)
> 
> Feedback is always welcome.


	4. Chapter 4

Four:

Turns out that reading actually works. Cedric had always genuinely believed that reading the textbooks was waste of time and that he wouldn't learn anymore than he would by just listening in class. There was a lot flawed with that logic, especially considering that Cedric had never really bothered to listen in class either. Bottomline, was that by the end of January, Cedric had come to the conclusion that, yes, his books did actually hold valuable information and no, his professors were not speaking in some secret code that he'd not been clued in on.

And when he received his first ever E from a proudly grinning Flitwick; books actually started to seem kinda cool.

So cool, in fact, that he ventured to a place in Hogwarts that he'd never thought he'd step foot in. The Library. As a matter of fact, he stepped foot in the library quite regularly ever since returning from Yule break, much to the confusion and elation of Jona, who'd always rather liked reading.

On a dreary afternoon in early February, until recently, Cedric would most likely have been found napping in an alcove or hassling the house elves in the kitchens for a snack. But, indolent Cedric Diggory was a thing of the past and instead he could only be found pouring over his transfiguration essay, doing his best to decipher the confusing passage he was using as reference.

He was so focused that he almost didn't notice three little figures sitting down in the table in front of him, but their furious whispering was rather hard to ignore and in the end, and he glared up from his essay, preparing to snippily address whoever was breaking his concentration. But all of that was wiped clean from his mind upon seeing Harry Potter sitting barely a meter away.

Since then Cedric had been spending any free time possible in the library in hopes of repeating the encounter. It worked rather well, as it seemed that the Gryffindor Trio was researching something with reckless abandon. This ignited the elder Hufflepuff's curiosity greatly and he wanted nothing more that to walk up and ask what it was they were looking for.

However Cedric was not in Gryffindor for a very good reason and ultimately, couldn't summon the courage to directly ask them. He instead had to resort to less than glamorous tactics and sneak one of their note sheets from their table when the three of them were off searching for more books.

When he returned to his own paper-strewn table he examined the almost barren piece of parchment. All that was on it was 'Nicholas Flamel?' written in hurried chicken scratch and circled a few times. He frowned in thought, squinting at the name. Nicholas Flamel... he was almost certain that his father had said something about him at one point or another. Something about... Dumbledore...

"Oi" he grunted, elbowing Jona who was flipping through what looked like a rather tasteless romance novel.

Jona grimaced, rubbing his his arm sorely "What, you neanderthal?"

"Do you know who Nicholas Flamel is?"

A mulish expression crossed his friend's face as he continued to rub his arm. "No, should I-" He then froze, eyes glazing with thought, staring distantly in no particular direction.

Cedric waited for a moment or so, watching Jonathan's expression eagerly before adding, "Something about Dumbledore, right?"

After a second longer Jona sprung to action, reaching into his pocket and slamming the box from the chocolate frog he'd been snacking on earlier onto the table. The taller Hufflepuff squinted at the crumpled bit of cardboard for a moment before turning back to the shorter.

"Look, I get that you're mad that I elbowed you, bu-"

Jona rolled his eyes and interrupted, huffing dramatically. "No, you dunce. Read the card."

Straightening out the wrinkles, he looked down to find a omnipotent-looking Dumbledore staring back at him, it winked and raised a long finger to point at the caption below the image.

"Oooooh."

-0v0-

Cedric almost immediately regretted writing down that Nicholas Flamel was the creator of the Philosopher's Stone. He'd felt an initial excitement at being able to help Potter in some way, even if the boy would never know it was he who did it, followed by a wave of pride at the elated and thankful look on Potter's face. But about a day later all he really felt was a mixture of regret aggravation upon the realization that now that Potter had what he needed, there was no point in him visiting the library.

He sighed forlornly, flipping through a dusty, old Potions encyclopedia. Oh well, all his Potter-watching had been distracting him from his studying anyway.

-0v0-

There had been a brief point where Cedric had wondered if his interest in Potter was just a phase that would eventually fade. He'd dismissed it though. It didn't really matter either way, if he lost interest in Potter then at the very least he still had his improving grades from the whole juncture of wanting to impress the boy-savior. However he needn't worry in the first place. By the end of the year Potter still had his full attention whether Cedric wanted to admit it or not.

He didn't want to admit it though, not in the slightest. In all honesty, he wasn't certain why this concept unsettled him, especially since he certainly wasn't the only one who was entirely riveted by Harry Potter, the majority of the school still watched his every move with bated breath. All the same it did him better not to dwell on the why.

After all, he was benefiting far too much from his actions to allow himself to contemplate why he was bothering with them. His grades had rapidly spiked since January bumping him from his less than stellar record of 27th in his year all the way to 11th. Looking back on it, it made him feel silly that he'd ever thought that learning was hard.

Having realized that he could put in half as much effort as we was putting into his education and still do quite well, Cedric decided to refocus on the athletic portion of his popular persona in the making. Cedric was already a fairly athletic individual and was blessed with a naturally lean and strong body. Therefore Cedric spent less time trying to get in shape and more time improving his Quidditch technique. This did not go quite as quickly as Cedric had hoped, though, truthfully he had some unreasonable expectations. He'd been aiming to  _somehow_  get so good that he replaced the main seeker by the time the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff game at the end of the year rolled around. Although, by around May Cedric actually paused and thought about how ridiculous that goal was, considering that reserve players didn't even  _go_ to practices and there was no real instance where his captain would actually  _see_  that he'd surpassed their main seeker (although he hadn't surpassed her yet anyway so it was all null and void).

None of this really mattered in the end, as the whole reason why he'd been looking forward to the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match was lying unconscious in the infirmary on the day of the match. Cedric didn't even bother showing up to the match (despite it technically being obligatory for him) and instead allowed his feet to carry him to Harry Potter's bedside in the Hospital Wing.

It was an odd sort of feeling, looking at the boy's face in the warm morning light. This was the face he'd studied hundreds of times before throughout the school year, but never had he the opportunity to see it so close. He noticed things that he'd never seen in the many times he'd gazed at Potter's visage, the light dusting of freckles for example and the rosy, almost fevered cheeks. So pale and smooth Cedric could almost believe he were a porcelain doll if not for the rise and fall of the thin chest.

He had to force his eyes away from their inspection of Potter, looking instead at the candy-laden bedside table. It was so full that Cedric questioned if the table would be able to support even a cauldron cake more. His eyes narrowed, looking at the tottering pile.

Cedric had been sent to the infirmary once. It had been for a foolish reason; sliding down the banisters of one of the moving stairways. In the end the stairway had moved right as he was sliding towards the end of the bannister and he'd been sent plummeting down to another set of stairs three floors below, breaking so many bones that he couldn't even recall them all. If he'd been a muggle he'd surely have died.

And yet, in the 6 long days he'd spent in the infirmary he'd only received three get-well presents, one from his parents, another from his grandparents and a third from Jonathan.

So, looking at this pile of offerings filled him with a sense of urgency. He and Potter were truly worlds apart, when total strangers were willing to laden him with gifts while Cedric receive barely a card from his loved ones. Strangely, though, there was no jealousy or longing even.

He wondered why, popularity is what he wanted, wasn't it?

A realization broke him out of his haphazard thoughts. Out of all the sweets the adoring masses had sent Potter, not a single one of them were his favorite. With that thought in mind, Cedric turned on his heel and headed straight for the kitchens.

Surely Potter would appreciate a slice of treacle tart upon awakening.

-0v0-

The gentle rock of the Hogwarts Express always made Cedric a bit drowsy, he'd usually end up spending at least half of his time on the train snoozing while Jona pouted at him falling asleep mid-conversation. This time, however Cedric couldn't have felt more wide awake. He wasn't quite certain why, he just seemed to be getting increasingly more energized as of late. It was a little irksome actually as it was slightly impeding his sleep schedule, but oh well, all the more time to focus on more important things.

Spending his train ride in something besides a sleepy haze was actually very surreal. What had once been almost an image that weaved in and out of his dreams and his consciousness rose and fell like a tidal wave, became nothing more than a cozy compartment. For some reason it felt like the magic was kind of lost.

He  _still_  didn't really listen to Jonathan's blatherings, opting to stare at the ceiling instead. It was a bit harder to actively ignore him without the veil of drowsiness, but as long as he didn't allow his thoughts to wander, he could still manage to tune him out. Therefore, he spent his time focusing on mentally going over and perfecting plans.

Cedric had never been much of a planner so, he really had to think hard on all of it. He decided that he needed to list what exactly he was going to do over the summer, else he may allow his lethargy to creep back once removed from his learning environment. He also made note to buy a journal from Diagon as soon as possible to write all of this down. The moment he started actually doing his school work he noticed that he had an easier time organizing his thoughts when he wrote it out on paper.

His main goal was to replace the current Hufflepuff seeker; *Ava Cesaria. by the next Quidditch season. He thought it quite possible, really. Cesaria had always been rather jittery during games and would make a lot of mistakes that would cost them the entire competition. If Cedric could show that he was just as skilled as he and still capable of keeping his head in the game, then he'd be a shoe-in.

With this surge of confidence he decided that he may as well pay Jona a  _bit_ of attention, after all, it'd probably be a whole summer before they'd see each other again.

When he finally stepped off the train it was late afternoon and Charing Cross was basked in a warm golden glow. And instead of searching out his parents, Cedric found his gaze drifting towards the gaggle of redheads that Potter was no doubt ensconced in. Something in him made him want to march over and bid the boy goodbye.

He resisted the urge and was soon distracted by his approaching parents.

He's then wrapped in another of his mother's smothering hugs and his father pats him on the back, pride coloring his face. Cedric just stood greeting them politely and pretended to listen as his parents droned on about how Sprout had mailed them about his improving grades. About how  _proud_ they were.

Yeah right.

It was almost amusing how they thought he'd been doing it for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are kinda zooming by, I know.


	5. Chapter 5

Five:

Summer break had always made Cedric intensely bored and a little bit lonely. They generally consisted of him laying about all day and going out for the occasional fly when it suited him, so it was unsurprising that the break would generally get old quickly. It usually wasn't until the end of the break that Cedric began to feel much of anything besides lethargy, which would be around the time that blind panic would set in over the fact that he hadn't even started his summer homework.

This time, it was very different, however.

Cedric had actually _begun_ his break with homework, spending the first week-and-a-half holed up in his room, bent over his desk as he grumbled over the unfair amount of work that McGonagall and Snape always appointed, only stepping out of his chambers to scarf down whichever meal his parents remembered to call him down for.

Surprisingly, it was actually a rather refreshing way to start his summer and when he finally finished all of his homework, he felt unusually energized. So, a week-and-a-half after break had started he'd done something very out of the ordinary for him. He went to Diagon Alley for something besides school supplies shopping.

Consistent to what he'd planned on the train ride home, Cedric's first stop after Gringotts was Flourish and Blotts to spend (what some may consider) an exorbitant amount of money on a 'never-end' planner. It annoyed him somewhat when he went to purchase the item, that many of the planners and journals that had been on display had unnecessary details, like lacy covers and perfumed pages. It conveyed a diary-esq vibe that was very off-putting for him. He didn't want a girly little notebook to write his feelings in or whatever. He just wanted something to plan in. He ended up settling for a dark brown leather journal filled with thick parchment and a rounded spine and minimal frills. He'd even had his initials engraved in the bottom right corner in copper lettering. He also ended up buying a few ink wells and quills since he'd been running low for the first time since first year, it was amazing how quickly one went through writing utensils when they actually wrote with them.

Flourish and Blotts was not his only stop in Diagon Alley as he also ducked into Quality Quidditch Supplies. It was a bit surprising to see how barren the shop was when it was not filled to the brim with Hogwarts students rushing about on last-minute shopping. It was the first time, in fact, that the stout, grey-haired shopkeeper was idle enough to greet him. Cedric had nodded politely in reply and immediately gravitated towards the high end racing brooms displayed in the front window.

Staring at their polished wooden handles and perfectly straight bristles, Cedric was briefly tempted to buy the Nimbus 2000, almost entranced by the sleek, warm-toned broom, his fingers trailing over the reflective helve. It felt off, though. The broom just looked wrong in his large, tanned hands. It was intended for smaller hands, paler ones, frailer...

"Ya' don' wan' that one, laddie." a gruff voice pulled him out of his reverie and Cedric glanced over to see the shopkeeper from before standing next to him, arms crossed over his potbelly.

"Why's that?" questioned Cedric as he placed the broom back onto it's display, giving the man his undivided attention. "Is there something wrong with it? I've heard it's very good."

"Nothin' wrong with it." said the man with a shake of his head as he arranged the broom to fit more snugly into it's holder. "Jus' not suited for the likes o' you."  
Rage surged through his veins so suddenly that Cedric felt as though he'd been struck by lightning, dysphoria bubbling in the pit of his stomach. The likes of him? What was the man insinuating? That he was not good enough, well, Cedric would show him exactly ho-

"Yer a bit too tall fer somethin' like tha' model."

Cedric's attitude immediately cooled at that remark and he felt somewhat foolish at his immediate defensiveness. Of course the man wasn't saying that Cedric was sub-par, he didn't even know him.

"What would you suggest then, sir?"

The man bustled to the back of the store, motioning for Cedric to follow. "Depends on what ye' want to use it for."

"I play reserve seeker on my house team, I'm hoping to be promoted this year, though."

"Ah," the shopkeeper began, chuckling a bit sardonically. "Lookin' fer somethin' to give ye a bit of an edge, eh? Well, it's a good thing I steered you away from that there Nimbus, ye prolly would nar been able ta' keep yerself in the air on tha' thing. Nah, a lad yer size needs somethin' a bit sturdier, more balanced."

He disappeared into a door behind the counter that most likely lead to a storage room of some sort. When he returned there was a broom in each hand. Both were rather distinctive, the one in the left hand was a golden, almost yellowish tone with a jagged handle and very thick, rectangular bristles that reflected the light so brightly that they looked almost metallic. The other broom was rather pale-looking with a cornflower blue handle with swirling white runes circling the shaft in thin swirls, the bristles were a light brown, almost white.

"This," the man lifted the broom in his right hand, passing it to Cedric for inspection. "Is the Moontrimmer 07, it's good fer people who wanna fly o' bit higher, very good control up in the air, but not so good if yer tryin' fer stunts or hard maneuvers. People with good balance perform best on it."

Cedric was then passed the yellowish broom.

"Tha' right there's the Australian Flyabout 50, world class racing broom tha' is. Very good fer speed and maneuvers, but o' bit harder to control. Ye'll be needin' good leg strength if you want to hold on to tha' one."

Cedric had nodded along, listening closely to the man's descriptions as he weighed his options. They both seemed like very good choices for him and both had great appeal to him. After a few minutes of his considering the man spoke up again.

"Tell yer what. I think the Flyabout would be yer best choice, since ye look more strong than graceful, but if ye' buy it and think that maybe it wasn't the right choice, ye' can come back when'er ye' like and I'll give ye' back yer money, how's tha' sound?"

Cedric was therefore, unsurprised when he'd been disturbed by his father's surprised exclamations at around 7:00 the next morning.

"Cedric! Ced, come downstairs"

Cedric had already been awake long before his father had called for him, but he was still somewhat annoyed at his reading being interrupted. He dog-eared his page in Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling before trudging down the stairs to find his father waiting at the base of them a long, thin package in hand.

"This came in the mail for you, son. It's not what I think it is, is it?" his voice was so saccharinely hopeful that Cedric almost found it pitiful.

Almost was, however, the operative word, so he felt no remorse when he stonily replied with, "Depends on what you think it is." and he pulled the package out of his father's hand before turning around and marching back upstairs, his father staring morosely after.

It turned out that the shopkeeper's generous offer to allow Cedric to return the broom after a test-run was unnecessary as the Hufflepuff was immediately quite satisfied with the Australian Flyabout's performance. The experience of flying on a world-class racing broom was astoundingly different than flying with a school-provided Cleansweep. Cedric had never found practicing Quidditch to be particularly enjoyable up until this point, and he could suddenly see why Potter always looked like he was having the time of his life whenever mounting his Nimbus 2000.

He had originally been dreading practicing Quidditch over the summer, more than even doing his homework. But by the end of the day, what he had considered to be a chore had evolved into an enjoyment and by the end of the summer Cedric could barely be parted with his broom.

The summer had gone by almost too quickly after that, but Cedric was still extremely excited to be back at Hogwarts as soon as possible anticipation filling him to the brim at the very thought of returning and showing his peers exactly how much he'd changed (improved) over the summer.

On the morning that he was to return to Hogwarts, Cedric woke up early (well, earlier than usual. Cedric had actually been getting up as early as 6 AM almost the entire summer) unable to sleep for very long at all. Never before had Cedric felt nervous for something as mundane as school, but all that week his stomach had been strangely fluttery and it was only then that'd he'd realized that it was anxiety that was plaguing him.

So, he'd spent nearly the first hour of his morning pacing back and forth across the hardwood floor of his room, trying to get his nerves under control. When that didn't work he'd reached for his journal, flipping through it to read through the chronicles of his daily improvements, finding a bit of comfort in knowing that he wasn't quite the nobody that he'd been only a year earlier. Yet still he couldn't quite expel the dread that continued to pool in the pit of his gut and somehow he found himself reaching for the nearest quill as he scribbled down his worries and fears onto an empty page, covering the parchment in a jumbled black mess of insecurities.

When he finally snapped the journal closed, he felt lighter, freer, he felt ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you were wondering, both the brooms I mentioned are cannon in HP universe, the Australian Flyabout appeared in Harry Potter: Qudditch World Cup (a shitty EA game) and I read about the Moontrimmer in Quidditch Through the Ages
> 
> Feedback is always welcome.


	6. Chapter 6

Six:

Jonathan had gone to Lithuania over the break. How did Cedric know this, you might ask? Well, Jonathan had told Cedric about it, in fact he was still telling Cedric about it, in minute detail. However after droning on for at least an hour the shorter boy stopped rather abruptly, trailing off mid-sentence, his eyes wide an apparent awe.

"You look good!"

Cedric had blinked at this, swiping his bangs out of his face as he looked up from slouching over Quidditch Through the Ages.

"Oh... er, you think so? Thanks."

Jona nodded rather enthusiastically at this and Cedric wasn't quite certain if he should feel proud or embarrassed by his friend's fervent praise. He resolved to prod a bit further.

"What prompted this... exactly?"

 "Oh!" blinked the other boy a somewhat thoughtful expression crossing his face, his head tilting while he squinted at Cedric in inspection. "Hmm... Well... y'know I dunno actually. You just look less..." he paused tapping his chin, eyes trailing towards the ceiling before the popped back to their original inspection in realization. "Less doughy!" he stated proudly as though he hadn't just said something rather offensive.

Cedric could tell that Jona hadn't meant to insult him, but honestly he wasn't sure if that made it hurt more or not. In the end he let is slide.

"Yeah, well I've been working out a lot this summer. I'm hoping to replace Cesaria this year."

"Well, I think you're a shoe-in, that girl is more nervous than a backwards kneazle. I swear! You'd think she were a first-year with the way she carries on!"

The older boy chuckled and nodded. "Ha, yeah. I overheard McKinley once say she's afraid of heights!"

Laughed filled their compartment and the Hogwarts Express chugged happily onwards. But even in these merry moments, Cedric had to wonder if Jona would be the only person to notice how much Cedric had changed over the summer.

The image of awe filled green eyes floated distantly in his subconscious for the rest of the trip.

-0v0-

Potter wasn't there.

It was the first thing Cedric noticed upon stepping foot into the Great Hall, his grey eyes swiveled immediately towards the Gryffindor table, only to find it devoid of the messy-haired saviour. He tried to console himself in the idea that Potter was perhaps in the lavatory or maybe just wasn't interested in attending the start-of-term feast, but his hopes were dashed when he caught sight of the clearly concerned, frizzy-haired side-kick (that he couldn't for the life of him remember the name of).

"Where's Potter?" he hissed to Jona who was watching the sorting with a rather bored expression.

"Huh? Well, the Gryffindor table, right?" said the shorter boy, not taking his eyes of the quivering first-year situated under the Sorting Hat. "I'd say a Puff for sure, eh? Look at the way he's quakin' in his boots."

Cedric completely ignored the remark, continuing on his earlier assertion, "He's not there, though!"

Jona actually looked at the Gryffindor table at this, his expression still rather bored. "He's prolly in the loo or somethin'."

Cedric rolled his eyes; Jona could be so useless sometimes. Biting his lip he looked back at the Gryffindor table as if Potter would have just suddenly appeared in the few seconds he'd looked away. That was not the case of course, and Cedric ended up spending practically the entire feast staring at the Gryffindor table between bites, wondering desperately where the Boy-Who-Lived was. The entire time all he could imagine is the trouble the boy was always getting into.

It was only when Potter and his obnoxious red-headed friend came stumbling through the double doors, kicking up a ruckus as Snape came swooping down to cart them away, that Cedric was able to huff a sigh of relief. Potter seemed alright, if not in a boatload of trouble judging by the furious expression on Snape's face.

Yet, even though Cedric knew that Potter was just fine and that even if he weren't fine, it really shouldn't have been any concern of Cedric's he somehow had a hard time falling asleep later that night and stayed up to the wee hours of the morning, plaguing himself with morbid thoughts of Potter in danger, only eventually falling into a fitful sleep.

Despite being nearly unable to fall asleep the previous night, Cedric felt almost unnervingly energized the next morning. It was a strange, jittery sort of energy like how one might feel after drinking one too many cups of coffee. Still, when he sat down for breakfast he was in good spirits and listened curiously as his housemates described Potter (and that one Weasley kid that he couldn't recall the first name of) flying an enchanted muggle contraption into the Whomping Willow.

Jonathan seemed to find a great amount of humor in the story, but Cedric just felt a muted interest, a bit disappointed about Potter getting in trouble. He did however laugh along with the rest of the school when the youngest Weasley son received a colorfully worded howler mid-breakfast.

Overall it was his best first day of classes yet. There was not a single class where a teacher berated him for not completing his summer homework, or for staring listlessly off in space during a lecture, there were even a few times where he managed to get a couple extra points for Hufflepuff by answering a question correctly.

He could easily say by the end of the day that his hard work was paying off.

-0v0-

For most people who tried out for Quidditch, the day of tryouts was a nerve-wracking and exciting day. Though for Cedric it had always been... fine, for lack of a better word. He just considered it a part of a process, especially since he'd never actually been aiming to be on the team. His father just encouraged him to do it and he'd never seen any reason not to.

This time it was a bit different, however.

He was not nervous nor was he particularly confident. He just felt that for once, he had something to be proud of, even if some second year ends up coming out of left field and steals the seeker position out from under his nose, Cedric still thought that he could feel accomplished in knowing that he tried his very best, which was something new for him.

Nothing of the sort happened though, of course. Surprisingly skilled second-years were the type of thing to crop up at Gryffindor or Slytherin tryouts, maybe even Ravenclaw, but certainly not at a Hufflepuff tryout. In fact, there hadn't even been a second-year trying out for seeker.

No, in the end it was just Cedric, Cesaria and some third-year by the name of Grayson. Grayson hardly counted as a contender for the seeker position as he could barely stay on his broom after doing a lap around the field.

Cesaria, however was quite the contender, more so than Cedric had expected, in fact. McKinley had them do a multitude of things such as laps, loops, dives and corkscrews all of which, the two fourth-years performed flawlessly.

It wasn't until the Hufflepuff Captain released the snitch that the balance was forced to tip.

The two potential seekers mounted their brooms, Cedric glancing at his competitor calmly meeting her almost terrified gaze. He sent her a smirk before kicking off, his Flyabout picking up speed rapidly, leaving her Cleansweep in the dust.

He caught the snitch before Cesaria could even spot it.

When he landed back on the green, snitch clutched in hand, Cesaria was already there, watching his descent, with a crestfallen look on her face. As he caught sight of her expression, a strange feeling welled in his gut, guilt, he surmised after a moment's thought. It was not a winner's guilt. Rather, he felt guilty at not feeling particularly anything for the seeker position. He felt no excitement at finally being accepted onto the team, no excitement at the prospect of future games. He just felt...

Accomplished. The kind of distant accomplishment that comes with completing a menial task. He could not even call it pride.

It seemed a bit wasteful to take the seeker position from someone who truly treasured it, because it was clear that Cedric did not.

He bade a mental apology to Cesaria as he shook the hand of the winningly grinning Quidditch Captain.

Oh well, he had plans and no amount of heartbreak on Cesaria's part was going to stop him.

-0v0-

Jonathan was very happy for him.

This did not surprise Cedric much, as Jonathan was always happily surprised when Cedric did something besides eating, sleeping or breathing. Upon finding out that Cedric had gotten seeker position, he'd dragged Cedric down to the kitchens for a celebratory snack. He'd also treated Cedric to a few rounds at The Three Broomsticks the next Hogsmeade weekend.

Again, Cedric was not surprised by this. Jona was a good friend, and thusly did good things for Cedric when warranted.

What surprised Cedric was that other people were happy for him.

Professor Sprout had taken him aside after Herbology to tell him how proud she was to have him on the team. Almost all his other Professors, even the other heads of houses (besides Snape, of course) congratulated him on his new position in some way or another.

Stranger still, was the amount of people he rarely ever talked to who came up to congratulate him. He felt a bit guilty about these people, however as they were often people he couldn't even recall the name of. He had housemates come up to him in the common room or during meals and express their excitement for his first game and all Cedric could do is nod dizzily as he wracked his brains trying to put names to their forgettable faces.

It was strange really, even he, a Hufflepuff, found the majority of his housemates to be nothing more than supporting roles to the more important students from other houses.

It made him feel horrible.

It made him hate being a Hufflepuff.

Almost two weeks later Cedric received a package from his parents as well as a somewhat miffed but congratulatory letter, questioning why they were only just now hearing of his acceptance to the Quidditch team, from a co-worker, no less. The package turned out to be a fairly expensive broom-servicing kit that Cedric was sure he'd put to good use.

He binned the letter, however and only sent a short reply explaining that he'd forgotten all about it.

He wondered if they'd read between the lines and realize it was them he'd forgotten all about.

-0v0-

If the world made any sense, then there would be a unanimous agreement that Gilderoy Lockhart did not belong at the front of any classroom anywhere. This was not the case, for some horrible reason, which is was ultimately what lead to Cedric now sitting in the front of the DADA classroom, bored out of is mind as the man droned on and on about topics completely unrelated to the curriculum.

It irked Cedric rather greatly that he had to have a sort of professor like this this year. Only two years ago he would have been happy to have such a wishy-washy teacher where he could get by doing less than the minimum, but since his decision to improve himself, Cedric had put a lot of stock into his studies and it was extremely irksome to have a teacher who was of no use to him, especially considering OWLs were only a year away.

So, despite it being clear that Lockhart was not going to say anything relevant, Cedric still forced himself to pay attention on the off chance that the idiot might say something useful. Nevertheless it's extremely hard to pay attention to someone so useless, so in the end his mind still wandered a bit.

It made him curious, actually. How could someone so clearly worthless be popular to the point of fame? Cedric could see no apparent redeeming qualities in Gilderoy Lockhart and yet the man's name was still known in practically every wizarding household nationwide.

What was it that made him so loved?

"-I know he's a bit of an airhead, but just look at those sparkling blue eyes..." the stray comment came from one of the two Ravenclaw girls who continually gossiped; Marietta Edgecombe and Evelyn Gradie.

"I know, and his smile..." Their wistful sighs tickled the back of his neck and fluttered Jona (who was snoring away)'s hair, but Cedric couldn't even bring himself to be annoyed as an epiphany struck him.

Lockhart was attractive. That's all he was, but he was extremely so. The concept made the Hufflepuff boy's head spin. All Lockhart had to do was look good and everything would just fall into his lap?

It was that easy?

Cedric of course knew of attractiveness and could tell when people were attractive, but he never gave it much consideration. Good looking people were just good looking, it's not like it mattered to him.

Why should it?

Good looking or otherwise no one would give someone like him the time of day, especially not in a romantic manner.

But, now that he thought about it, a lot of the popular people were physically attractive in one way or another, whether is be classically handsome or roguish, girly or graceful.

This thought made Cedric very worried, actually. He rarely even looked in the mirror, he had no clue if he was attractive or not.

He supposed not, though, else he's be popular, right?

He could recall when Cho Chang and Alicia Spinnett had been talking about him in the library, a bit after he'd gotten the seeker position. It had really caught his attention since he'd never heard anyone talk about him before.

He'd simply remained bent over his textbook, eyes still as he listened intently to their remarks. Jona, who was, as usual, sitting next to him had also paused in his reading to listen.

"That's Diggory?" Chang had hissed, surprise coloring her voice.

"Mmn hmm." had been Spinnett's response. "Yep, that's Diggory, the new Hufflepuff Seeker."

He heard an unattractive snort, that most likely came from Chang. "I mean Cesaria wasn't the best, but at least she didn't look like a dork."

Spinnett snickered a bit, "Yeah, I mean I honestly didn't even know he existed until he got seeker and we have 3 classes together!"

Cedric had still been staring resolutely at the faded pages of his text book, grey eyes wide as he'd listened to the girls giggle at his expense.

Jonathan's finger's had curled over his right shoulder, his friend leaning closer to whisper to him.

"Don't let those bimbo's comments get to you. They're just being petty."

Cedric had leveled his friend bewildered stare at this, brow furrowed in confusion. "Get to me?" he had questioned.

Jona blinked back, his expression mirroring Cedric's. "Well yeah, don't let them hurt your feelings, you know?"

"Why would that hurt my feelings?"

Jona hadn't done anything besides shrug and remove his hand from Cedric's shoulder.

It wasn't until now that Cedric understood why he should have been offended by their comments. Attractiveness is what made people popular!

...well, maybe not. There were plenty of fairly fetching people who didn't matter at all, perhaps there were just some personalities that good looks couldn't make up for.

Cedric supposed the most popular people had both good looks and an interesting personality, like Daphne Greengrass, or the Weasley twins.

Or Potter.

That notion struck him a bit.

Was Potter attractive?

Cedric had always supposed that appealing men had manly features. Tall, strong and chiseled. But Cedric did not see any of those features in Potter. In fact, he was rather the opposite, petite, weak and soft.

He couldn't help but think back to that stolen moment in the Infirmary and the way Potter's skin almost glowed in the soft light.

No no, Potter was attractive, just in a very untraditional way.

He was...

Ethereal.

It made Cedric wonder if Potter ever thought he were attractive.

'-I mean I honestly didn't even know he existed-'

He frowned and turned his attention back to a still preening Lockhart. He should be focusing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so second year has begun. I'm rather excited for this year as I get to introduce a character who will be playing an interesting role later on. They wont necessarily be important, but they'll have an effect. I'm happy about the size of this chapter, though a bit annoyed at how it flows, it jumps around quite a bit, I hope it wasn't too hard to follow.  
> I'd like to point out that I've slightly changed the chronological order of Second Year, however it wont have any effect on the overall outcome of Harry's escapades, so don't worry about that.


	7. Chapter 7

Seven:

Cedric and Jona honestly found the whole Chamber of Secrets thing a bit funny. Sure it was sort of spooky that someone wrote in blood on the wall, but it's not like they did anything particularly harmful outside of petrifying Filch's fleabag (which was honestly an added bonus). It was clear that the student body was blowing things out of proportion, as per usual.

Although he did find it very unreasonable that Potter was being blamed for all of it purely for being present at the scene of the crime, he was only a second year, and clearly as shaken up as the rest of the younger years. The only reason anyone was pointing any fingers at him is because he was 'The-Boy-Who-Lived.' Jona had agreed with Cedric on this, but didn't really seem to care. Cedric supposed he shouldn't care either, caring about other people's business had never been within his personality, but...

He did this time for some reason.

In fact he cared quite a lot, so much that mood had begun to rapidly decline the more that people jumped onto the bandwagon that was hating Harry Potter. He'd watch Potter in the halls and during meals, noticing the way the boy would glance about at the people whispering vindictively behind their hands, no doubt spewing nonsensical vitriol about the innocent Gryffindor. It made Cedric physically sick to his stomach and lie awake at night, brooding at the unfairness of it all (and secretly wondering why he cared just  _so_   _damn much_.)

But, it got so much worse when it came out that Potter was a parselmouth. There wasn't a single person in the school who wasn't talking about Potter in some manner or another, but worst of all was the Hufflepuffs, Finch-Fletchley in specific.

The second-year would go on and on and  _on_  about that  _damn_ joke of a DADA club, telling anyone who would listen about how Potter had tried to 'attack' him and how he'd 'barely survived by the skin of his teeth.' What was even more disgusting was how people bought it, spreading their own spins on the story, muckracking just for the hell of it.

Truthfully, Cedric was a very mild person, and therefore held mild opinions for just about anyone, generally not feeling any particular way about a certain person. Therefore, it was very strange for Cedric to feel such a  _rancorous_   _hatred_  for someone, a housemate, no less. He would literally just look at Finch-Fletchley jabbering away in the common room about his little tale and suddenly his whole day would be ruined.

So, when he stumbled upon the little cretin nestled in front of the common room fire, re-telling his story for what must've been the thousandth time, he honestly couldn't hold it in anymore.

"And then Potter hissed in his creepy snake language and ordered the snake to bite me!"

"I didn't know you spoke parseltongue, Finch-Fletchley." His voice sounded very different when he was angry, it was honestly rather surreal to hear.

Every gaze in the room snapped in Cedric direction and he had to resist the urge to slink off into some shadowy corner like all of his instincts were screaming at him to do. Instead he simply stood stock still, staring down the source of his ire, not even blinking when he felt Jonathan's hand on his shoulder.

The second-year's voice was tentative but incredulous, almost amused. "W- what're you saying, Diggory? Of course I don't."

"Then how did you know that Potter told the snake to bite you?" It came out in a near hiss, but could be heard clearly throughout the silent room, a few people edged away from him, but Jona remained firmly by him.

"Well..." began Finch-Fletchley, cowering under the many curious stares pointed at him. "Well, I mean, what else would he be saying?"

Cedric nearly rolled his eyes at this, his lips thinning as pure annoyance coursed through him. No one could be this dumb, could they? "Weren't you Herbology partners up until the incident?"

"Yeah, w- why?"

Cedric  _actually_ rolled his eyes this time before squeezing them closed. He had to take a deep breath and counted backwards from ten so not to lose his temper. "And it never once occurred to you that Potter might've been trying to tell the ruddy snake  _not_  to attack you?"

It wasn't until Jona placed a steadying hand on his arm that Cedric realized that he'd moved all the way to where Finch-Fletchley was seated, towering over the quivering second year with a looming shadow.

"I- I ... well... I-"

He took another steadying breath, leaning back on the heels of his feet to place a bit of distance between himself in the object of his ire. His temper seemed to be getting worse as of late, it was becoming a bit of a problem.

"Face it," his voice was clinical and deadpan. "you jumped at the attention you received from being 'attacked' by Harry Potter and dragged his name through the mud."

He waited for some sort of response, watching the younger boy hang his head in shame. The silence in the room pressed against his ears and somehow only served in making him angrier. Of course the little hyenas didn't have anything to say now that they were being called out on their faults. He simply sighed when no one said anything and headed for the stairs leading to the dormitory.

"You should apologize to him, and the rest of you should get off of the poor kid's back." he didn't bother to turn around before beginning up the steps. Jonathan followed after, nearly jogging to keep up with his hurried pace.

"That was pretty cool, Ced."

"Mmn" was all he could manage as a reply.

"But hey," Jona's hand curled over his right shoulder, pulling him to a stop before they could enter their room. "How did you know that Potter and Finch-Fletchley were Herbology partners?"

"I-" Cedric trailed off. It had been a random sort of idea that popped into his head, to find out what Potter schedule was; not just his classes but the finer details like seating arrangement and partnerships. He couldn't very well tell Jonathan that he'd stolen Sprout's class planner when she hadn't been looking and copied down her second year seating chart.

That just sounded strange. Even to him.

"I overheard Finch-Fletchley bragging 'bout it before this whole shit-show started." He thought that his voice had sounded rather convincing, but Jona simply nodded, lips thinned and eyes a bit narrow.

Cedric simply looked away and reached for his potions report, letting the jittery energy that had been plaguing him lately take over and guide his quill.

-0v0-

One issue with being an actual member of his Quidditch team, was that the other actual members of the team, felt as though it was their obligation to do team-like things with him. Now, this would not be such a problem if it the team-like things were limited to the Quidditch field, but, that was not the case as the other Hufflepuff athletes tried to force Cedric into their strange little clique. They would follow him about the school, trying to make him feel  _included_  or whatever. It was infuriating and very distracting.

Cedric supposed that he should actually react to their attentions more positively as they  _were_ the most popular people in the Hufflepuff house (not that that meant much), but he didn't want the sort parasitic popularity that came with being on a team. The reason he became Seeker was to show that he was skilled not some dependent little wannabe hanging off the coattails of other people's acclaim.

However, all he could do was grin and bear it because if he  _did_ allow himself to snap and verbally attack his teammates like he so dearly wanted to, he would most likely be labelled as bad-tempered and rude.

Thusly, his mood continued to decline as he had to bottle up his frustrations, not only with this new issue but also with the Chamber of Secrets event and the added stress of actually trying in classes. It was enough to make his head spin. But, occasionally he would allow himself to pause and think about exactly why he was doing all this. He knew that if in the end he caught Potter's eye that it would all pay off. It was worth it.

With these thoughts in mind, he gazed across the Great Hall, eyes fixed firmly on the Gryffindor table. Whenever things felt like they were becoming too much and Cedric just wanted to revert back to being the useless shell that he was before, he could just look across the Great Hall and feel all of the anger and stress and jitteriness fade away and let his eyes trace the soft features of Harry Potter.

It was a bit different this time, Potter's face was tensed, ire apparent in his expression. It had been like that more and more often lately as Potter succumbed to the rumors surrounding him. Cedric could see that  _brat_  Creevy hanging about the savior yet again, talking animatedly and waving his camera about, no doubt begging for an autograph or something similar. Cedric found that boy's hero worship repulsive, and selfish. If Creevey really 'loved' Potter as much as he proclaimed then he'd be able to tell that his attentions weren't appreciated.

He wanted to do something about it

-0v0-

Cedric knew exactly where Creevey was pretty much all the time, because he knew exactly where Potter was pretty much all the time. Just look a few meters behind Potter and Creevey would surely be trailing after, starry-eyed and hopeful. So, on one February afternoon Cedric hid away in an alcove in the empty corridor below the Transfiguration Hall. Potter always took this corridor to get to and from Transfiguration since the main stairway was often very crowded before and after first block.

He stared out the shadowy alcove, watching Potter pass hurriedly by, head ducked, his two ever loyal friends following after. Moments like that would always feel very surreal for Cedric, knowing that Potter was only a few steps away, Cedric could easily just reach out and-

The sound of rapid clicking and snapping alerted him to his  _actual_  target's approach and only seconds later, Creevey came meandering into view, ducking from alcove to suit of armor to pillar, trying and failing to be inconspicuous as he tailed Potter around the school, camera flashing away.

Cedric simply extended a leg as Creevey scampered by and watched the little stalker tumble to the floor with an exaggerated yelp and then scrambled back to his feet, bouncing back like it was nothing and was about to continue his chase before he was grabbed by the arm.

He immediately whirled around, expression open but confused.

"Huh, I uh...?"

He let the boy flounder in his dubiety for a moment big brown eyes blinking rapidly.

"Colin Creevey, right?" Cedric ground out. For some reason he felt so annoyed, he honestly just wanted to punch this kid's lights out, it was a bit worrying, how angry he was becoming as of late. He supposed this is what stress was like.

"Yeah!" squeaked out the boy, far too chipper for the situation at hand. "How'd you know?" His face lit up with a no doubt misguided excitement. "Did  _Harry_  mention me?"

Cedric really couldn't stand this kid.

"No." He maybe took too much pleasure in watching the little Gryffindor's face drop. "This does, however have to do with Potter."

" _Really?_ Did he get my message then? Well,  _messages_ I suppose... I  _knew_ that if I sent enough of them he'd answer me, Harry so amazing like th-"

He squeezed the boy's shoulder tighter until he finally shut up with a pained squeak. "This isn't about any of that, but you're right. Potter is amazing, and more importantly kind, _too_ kind which is most likely the only thing that is stopping him from doing to you what I'm doing right now."

"W- what-" judging by the nervous tone, the brat seemed to finally catch on that it was not a friendly chat that Cedric was looking for. "What are you doing e- exactly?"

"Telling you that it's about time you fuck off and leave Potter alone."

"Wha'?- B- but I..." He trailed off expression lost and slightly hurt.

"For someone who claims to know everything about Potter you sure are ignorant. Don't you see how much it annoys him to have people following him around like classless little groupies?" The way Creevey's expression filled further and further with self-loathing filled something hollow inside Cedric, some hole he didn't even know what previously there.

However then the child's countenance suddenly slackened, all of that lovely sorrow and pain sliding off his face like blood off a blade and that lovely feeling in Cedric suddenly shriveled and died.

"What about you?" his voice was oddly even, stained with genuine question.

"What  _about_ me?"

He blinked and frowned, head tilting innocently. "Do  _you_ know everything about Harry? What are you to him? Who're you to speak on his behalf?"

"I'm... I'm..." What was he to say to that? He  _wasn't_ anything to 'The-Boy-Who-Lived', not in the slightest. If anything he was almost as bad as Creevey, creepily watching him from afar, secretly amassing information that should be overall useless to him.

Creevey just continued to stare at him with that curious look on his face before he made a soft, "Hmn." and wandered away.

God _damn_  he  _hated_ that fucking kid!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, I love Creevey, he's such a little weirdo. He's going to feature a fair amount more later on he's not going to be a main or anything of that manner, but he will have an interesting (in my opinion) effect on Cedric. 
> 
> Well anyway, thanks for reading and feedback is always welcome.


	8. Chapter 8

Eight:

Lockhart had taken his idiocy too far and Cedric was having no more of it. When he had settled down in his seat in the Hufflepuff stands on an unusually sunny October morning, Cedric had been in high spirits, overwrought with excitement at the concept of getting to see Potter gracefully move about the sky once again. However, his hopes had quickly been dashed upon the introduction of a rogue bludger, and while Potter's maneuvers still looked elegant, he couldn't look past his fear enough to fully appreciate them.

Nevertheless, it was the end of the match that had Cedric filled to the brim with loathing for the five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. When the ignoramus thought it would be prudent to attempt a complicated healing charm despite apparently having no previous training in healing, and more importantly despite being desperately idiotic.

That night, Cedric simply couldn't get Potter's ivory white face out of his mind when the child looked upon his boneless arm. There was simply no two ways about it; that halfwit was going to  _pay_.

The next morning he could admit to feeling smugly satisfied at Potter's elated snickers when Lockhart pompously opened his daily fanmail, only to end up sprouting peacock feathers out the top of his heavily-gelled head while pus-filled boils covered him from head to toe.

-0v0-

Cedric had been pretty proud of himself after his little confrontation with Finch-Fletchley as it was the main reason why the Hufflepuff house had backed off of Potter. He was just very happy to know that  _he_ , Cedric Diggory, The Hufflepuff Nobody had been able to alleviate one of the many burdens on Harry Potter's back and it was clear by the way Potter carried himself that he appreciated the reprieve in vindictive behavior from at least one of the houses.

But, it didn't last. Of course it didn't, it seemed to Cedric that nothing good ever lasted for Potter. Finch-Fletchley had to go and get his fat arse petrified and thusly turn the entire school's accusatory stares back to Potter, the Hufflepuff's vitriol increasing tenfold. What was worse was that there was simply nothing Cedric could do about it this time. All evidence  _did_ point to Potter if one was to excuse the fact that Potter was a  _fucking second year_  and the school seemed quite happy to ignore that little detail if it meant they could keep the rumor mill running.

In the end, the Hufflepuff simply sat back and glaringly watched the whole disaster fester, silently wishing Potter strength.

What was truly rich about the whole situation was that even  _Jonathan_  was now buying into the 'Heir-of-Slytherin' shite which had lead to an explosive conversation between he and Cedric. It had been during a Hogsmeade weekend and Cedric and Jona had managed to snag a booth at the Three Broomsticks before the pub could really fill up. Jonathan and Cedric generally did the same thing each Hogsmeade trip, go to the Three Broomsticks and hide away in some shady corner in the pub, after ordering lunch they'd generally end up either at Scrivenchaft's or Honeydukes and then grow bored and wander back to Hogwarts far before the deadline would even be called.

As Cedric had been sipping his virgin Gillywater (Butterbeer was a little too sweet for Cedric's liking) Jona had been the surveying the rapidly filling pub, watching the excitable students move about on their activities.

The smaller Hufflepuff's comment had been offhanded, meant more to spike conversation than to actually being any sort of debate. "So, who do you reckon Potter's gonna petrify next?"

Cedric's hand had frozen halfway to his mouth, mug held tightly. His eyes immediately lifted from where they'd been fixed upon the table, intent on meeting Jona's brown gaze, it was for naught as the other boy was staring longingly in Rosmerta's direction.

"Are you shitting me?" Cedric had likened his voice as calm if not somewhat disbelieving, but he couldn't be certain, it was hard to hear much of anything over the buzzing that had begun to fill his ears at Jonathan's question.

Jona finally pulled his stare from the barkeeper's curvy figure to frown at Cedric incredulously. "About wha'? You think I'm joking about Potter?"

"The Hell else would I be talking about?" His voice cracked slightly in his reply, anger bleeding through somewhat. "D'you actually think Potter's behind all this then?"

Jonathan blinked, lowering his butterbeer to the table. It was only then that Cedric realized that he was still holding his own mug to his lips and followed suit.

"Well," began the shorter boy cautiously. "It's clear that he was the one who did it. He had it in for Finch-Fletchley, not that I blame him with all the rumors that boy started."

Cedric wanted to tear his hair out in frustration; it felt like that moment in the Common Room all over again. "If it's so  _clear,_  then  _why_  hasn't he been expelled?"

The answer was immediate, something that Cedric appreciated, if he'd had to wait long, he probably wouldn't have been able to keep control. "'Cause he's got Dumbledore in his back pocket."

"A 12-year-old boy has Albus Dumbledore, First Class Order of Merlin, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot  _in his back pocket_?" His tone couldn't have been any drier.

"Well, when you put it like that is does sound a bit... But, even so all the evidence points to him!"

He didn't even notice when he slammed a fist to the table, rising from his seat. "Except that it's not even morally within his character to do something like this!"

Jona had mirrored his aggressive physical actions and stood as well, crossing his arms across his chest and raising his chin in a defiant manner. "What's that even supposed to mean?"

"I  _mean_ that Harry isn't like that!"

Brown eyes narrowed cooly, analytically searching Cedric's face as drawled out his next words. "Harry is it now?" He slid back down the booth, reaching for his butterbeer, pulling his gaze towards the amber liquid. "What  _is_ he like then, Ced? How do you know so much about his  _morals_?"

Creevey's words sounded somewhere in his subconscious. " _Do_ you  _know everything about Harry? What are you to him? Who're you to speak on his behalf?"_

Cedric simply sat down in his seat, taking a swig of his gillywater as resolutely ignored the stares of the nearby tables. They didn't speak a word to one another for the rest of the trip and by the next morning there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the two not to bring up the argument again.

That did not necessarily mean that Cedric didn't think about it though, in fact Jonathan's and Creevey's words seemed to be at the forefront of his thoughts more often than not. They were right, there was nothing more to it. Cedric had no right to claim that he knew anything about Harry Potter when Harry Potter didn't even know he existed. Yet, the more he tried to force himself to accept this fact, the more despondent he would become. And the more he pondered on how despondent he was becoming by it, the more  _confused_ he would become, which would lead him back to trying to force himself to accept their words as fact.

It was a vicious cycle.

But, there was a silver lining. The concept of proving them wrong.

If he continued on the path of popularity, if he continued to pursue Potter's attention, then he could show them, show everyone that he  _did_ know Potter and that Potter knew him, he could finally prove that he was worthy that he was more than just the Hufflepuff nobody.

That concept left him jittery and excited. It mixed oddly with his still despondent emotions, but at least he could focus on the task at hand with his newfound energy.

-0v0-

This focus is pretty much solely what kept him going all the way to Christmas break. Similar to last year, he'd owled his parents in hopes that they would give permission for him to remain at Hogwarts for Yule. Again his hopes were dashed when he received yet another miffed reply stating that the Holidays was a time for family and that he was obligated to celebrate with them. Due to his already less-than-stellar attitude, he had been none-too-pleased with their reply and had to exercise extreme control so not to send them and explosive missive. Instead he glaringly threw his clothing and books into his trunk ignoring his roommates' watchful gaze as he grumbled under his breath about how it was all so unfair.

Jonathan had seemed to catch onto his bad attitude and spent the majority of the trainride paging through some trashy romance novel rather than purposefully aggravating Cedric with chatter like he usually would do.

He decided that his parents ought to learn to respect his wishes every once in awhile. It was very inconsiderate of them to ignore his requests as though they were frivolous and unimportant. For that reason, he actively avoided contact with his parents as soon as he disembarked the Hogwarts Express. Like last time, they seemed somewhat hurt by his cold shoulder, but didn't comment.

Instead of spending his break indulging in holiday merriment, his mood was pensive. With nothing to distract himself with, he was forced to confront his recent troubles.

Creevey had confronted him once more before his petrification with a strange sort of revelation, that left Cedric feeling worried. He knew that it was pointless to linger on the ramblings of that mad little stalker, but it was hard not to.

_He had been returning from Quidditch practice, moving as fast as his feet would allow so not to be followed by his insufferable teammates. They were nice people and all, but Cedric really couldn't put up with their whiny chatter about how hard they found classes and Quidditch practice._

_He'd just turned a corner in the second floor corridor when a tiny figure came barreling towards him and most probably would've knocked him off his feet if they'd not been so miniscule._

" _Oof!" he'd exclaimed. "Geeze kid, watch where you're going next ti-"_

" _There you are! I knew you'd be here."_

_His insides had immediately soured upon hearing the annoyingly squeaky, high-pitched voice. He looked down to see Colin Creevey looking up at him with a wide grin, camera poised._

" _What do you want, Creevy?" his tone had been cold, he simply wasn't in any mood to put up with the aggravating brat after a rough day at practice._

" _Well, ya see, I've been watching you! Ever since we talked I had thought 'Huh there's something about that guy.. ' and I finally figured out what it is! And that's why I-" The boy reached a diminutive hand into his robe pocket, rummaging around before pulling out a stack of photographs. "That's why I thought I'd give ya some of these!"  
He shoved them in Cedric's face and the Hufflepuff had to lean back for fear the child might smack him. Reaching up, he snacthed them from Creeveys grasp and frowned in inspection. Upon realizing what they were, a strange sort of jolt corsed through his stomach._

_Blinking shyly back up at him with large green eyes was Harry Potter, pink lips pulled into a timid smile, clearly embarrassed at getting his picture taken. Cedric simply stood there, eyes fixed firmly upon the picture, watching the boy glance about, he barely even noticed when Creevey leaned forward to take a glance._

" _Oh yeah, that's one 'o my favorites, it's one of the few times I could get him to pose for me."_

_Cedric's eyes narrowed at this, and the thumbed through the other photos, realizing that the majority of them Potter was unaware that he was being photographed._

" _Th- this is an invasion of privacy!" he stated, but his voice sounded rather weak even by his own ears._

_Creevey simply laughed at that. "You're so funny! I don't get you at all, but at the same time we're so alike!"_

"Alike!"  _Cedric had hissed, temper rising (though he was careful not to crumple the photos). "_ Us  _alike!? Not likely!"_

_The boy grinningly edged closer, invading the elder's space with reckless abandon until they were nearly nose to nose. "Oh, but we_ are!  _It's Harry that connects us don'tcha see? We're the only ones who seem to understand him for what he truly is! He's so much_ more  _than a celebrity, than the Boy-Who-Lived... he's perfect, don't you see? Do you get it? Oh what am I saying, of course you do!"_

_The way the boy had rambled, eyes distant and starry, grin manic, made Cedric very uncomfortable. But his words... Well as much as he wanted to denounce them as insane..._

_He simply couldn't._

_Creevey, for once, seemed to catch onto the atmosphere and sobered somewhat, grin fading to an almost sane-looking smile. "Well, you'll admit to to yourself eventually. But, you can keep those, I know you'll treasure them." He giggled. "But the next ones will cost ya'!"_

_With that he skipped off, leaving Cedric staring at a photo of a slumbering Harry Potter._

He'd stuffed the photos to the bottom of his trunk after that, but every night onwards he would be haunted by the concept of them sitting at the bottom of his dark, lonely suitcase, suffocating under a mound of clothes calling out his name imploringly. It was a ridiculous thought, but it simply wouldn't leave him and now that he was on break he had nothing to distract him from it.

He barely even lasted halfway into the first night of break before he hopped out of his bed with a dramatic display of vexation and opened his trunk, pulling out his stack of treasures. Once they were sitting in his hands, he wasn't quite certain what to do with them. He didn't want them damaged, but he felt that framing them would be a bad idea; if his parents were to ever enter his room they'd surely have questions. In the end, he reached under his pillow and pulled out his journal thumbing to the nearest empty page and began pasting.

As he was settling back under the covers, journal nestled under his pillow, he knew that there was something dreadful in his previous actions.

But, the satisfaction he felt was just good enough that he could ignore it for now.

He fell asleep to the color of green and the scent of pale flowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Creevey was petrified before Finch-Fletchley, but me moving things around wont have any effect over Harry's adventures. I feel that this is really around the time where Cedric's behavior crosses a threshold into unhealthy habits, but Third Year is where it's really going to get crazy. I simply love writing Creevey, he's so high energy and manic, it's very fun.  
> Also, I realize that first part was a little non-sequitur, but I felt that Lockhart's actions couldn't really go unaddressed.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	9. Chapter 9

Nine:

Cedric's stony silence where his parents was involved was strangely rejuvenating for him and by the end of the break he was in higher spirits than he'd been for the majority of the year. Having managed to fully bury away all of his worrying thoughts, he could now look forward to being able to actually play against Potter in the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match at the end of the year.

With such thoughts in mind he immersed himself further in his studies and extracurriculars, being sure to record all of his progress into his journal (and if he happened to linger on a picture or two it was by pure coincidence).

It was somewhat irksome to work alongside a team of dispassionate players, the overall mentality of the Hufflepuff team being 'well we're not gonna win anyway.' However Cedric felt that they were being awfully negative considering they had won the Quidditch cup last year. He also had a hard time putting up with them constantly spewing vitriol about Potter when the subject came up, but he thought that he was getting in better control of his temper, now that he was becoming more exposed to his new emotional extremities.

The mounting tension involving the Chamber of Secrets and continued petrifications did not go unfelt by Cedric, and he would often find himself staring at Potter's vacant seat at the Gryffindor table during most meals. It made him angry that they were driving him into hiding purely because they wanted a scapegoat for the whole ordeal. But, he sat back and waited, since there was nothing more he could do (or so he liked to console himself).

But, even with all the tiresome stress and tension and all the time he was spending practicing and studying, Cedric's sleep schedule seemed to only continue to slowly dwindle and by the beginning of February he was barely getting five hours of sleep a night, a stark difference from his original ten. Surprisingly this didn't really effect the constant jittery energy that would electrify him in his waking hours, but it did still cause faint dark circles to form under his eyes which he could easily cover up with a glamour if he ever so wanted.

With all of his running about trying to stay busy and focus on improving himself, he'd forgotten all about trivial events like holidays. Even when he hadn't been trying so hard to be presentable and spent his days lazing about Cedric really ever only gave holidays outside of Christmas and Halloween passing acknowledgement at best.

However, this year, it seemed Gilderoy Lockhart would not allow Valentines day to go unnoticed and Cedric woke to a school decked from floor to ceiling with a dizzying amount of hearts, frills and pitiful looking dwarves dressed as cupids. Despite this, Cedric did his best to simply laugh it off alongside Jona and continue his day normally.

Then came the little ordeal in the hallway and it all suddenly became hard to ignore. He had been on his way to Care while Jona had gone his separate way to Divination when a streak of pale skin and black hair had rushed past him, turning heads as it sped down the hall. It was only when the figure tripped that Cedric realized it was Potter who had run past him at such a breakneck pace. Before he could snap out of his confused haze and help the poor boy up one of those embarrassingly pink dwarves came toddling up and began belching out possibly the worst poem ever conceived.

His eyes remained affixed to Potter's rapidly reddening face in morbid fascination as the surrounding students jeered and cackled. He disliked it, seeing Potter in such discomfort, even if his pinked cheeks looked quite nice.

He could hear the Malfoy boy hissing something no doubt goading and childish and he turned his attention to the pale haired boy. Listening as he alluded to who it was that sent the horrible little message, that sent the cause for Harry's embarrassment, that had the audacity to-

She ran away in a swirling curtain of red hair, leaving the laughing masses behind and filling Cedric's belly with a coiling jolt of electric energy, some sort of animalistic need to give chase.

He held it back, somewhat and followed at a more leisurely pace than the full on run that he wanted to break into.

He found her holed away in an empty corridor in an even emptier classroom, crying her pretty little eyes out, a journal clutched to her chest. The Hufflepuff could only stand and watch, there was some part of his mind that said he should do something to comfort a little girl in need. But, another part of his mind, wanted to simply stay and watch through the cracked doorway. Watch the way the sorrow swallowed her up and drowned her. And that part was far stronger than the little voice in his head telling him it was all wrong.

He wasn't quite sure how long he stood there, leaning on the doorway, forehead pressed against the frame as he stared through the sliver of space between the slightly open door and the wall, watching her tiny shoulders shiver and shake until suddenly it all stopped.

They moaning and crying and quivering and whining all suddenly stopped and the little girl straightened, posture becoming firm and confident, shoulders squaring and jaw setting. There was a slight pause after that, the girl staring out the dusty window, eyes cold and distant. The eyes of an entirely different person.

All the pleasure and joy he had been deriving from his horrible glee had sizzled out upon seeing those eyes.

And then she turned, bolting from the floor and yanking the door out of Cedric's lax grip, pulling him inside the classroom before slamming it shut, the tip of her wand coming to rest just under his chin.

"Who are you and why are you watching me?" It was hissed out in a voice ill-suited for a young girl.

Cedric could only gape in his disorientation, astounded at how strong the dainty little hand holding him in place was.

Brown eyes rolled in an oddly dignified manner as an ugly sneer marred her pretty features, the wand digging deeper into his chin.

"Oh, why even bother with Hufflepuffs? They can barely formulate a thought  _without_ being scared shitless.  _Legilimens._ "

The past few hours sped through his mind in rapid succession, leaving him with a horrible sense of vertigo and a slight headache. He of course knew what legilimency was, his father being a Ministry Official who is trusted with sensitive information, one of the few things the man had taken the time to personally teach Cedric was how to try and avoid mental attacks.

He wasn't versed in Occlumency or anything of that matter, but he could at the very least detect a mental invasion.

"Y- you..." he stuttered out, unsure of what to say. No child at the age of 11 should be able to penetrate someone's mind with such thoroughness. Before he could figure out what to say, the redhead let out an ill-suited cackle.

"How unexpected! You're quite sickening, aren't you? Even better is that you haven't any idea just how horribly you're ruining yourself, it's hilarious, actually."

The sadistic delight faded from her face, leaving only an ugly sneer of vivid hatred. "How poetic~" she sang out sardonically. "The savior of the light turning a good man dark."

His hand twitched towards his wand at those words. He had no clue who the crazy little bint was or what she was on about, but he wasn't going to sit around and allow her to speak nonsense about Potter.

However, the wand under his chin twitched and she leaned ever closer, standing on her toes to bring their faces nearer. "Ah, ah ah. None of that. As much as I'd like to hang around and watch your downward spiral, I don't have time for irrelevant little Hufflepuffs. So, let's just forget this all happened, shall we? But, don't worry I'll leave you with that little show you derived so much pleasure from earlier. I _do_ understand the enjoyment that comes from another's pain."

Her eyes glinted a horrible crimson for the barest of moments.

"Obliviate."

He awoke in an alcove further down the hall, moments before the bell to the next block sounded, wondering when it was that he decided to lay down, and if the little girl was still crying her eyes out in that classroom.

-0v0-

Jonathan Davies was and is a good friend.

He did things like send his friends a gift on their birthday and Christmas. And he always remembered the sort of special things, like their allergies, their favorite activities, what makes them scared. And most importantly, he was there for them, he listened to them and did his best to console them when there was an issue, because even if he couldn't fix it, he could make them feel a bit better at the very least.

'They' meaning Cedric, of course. It was very common for Hufflepuffs to have very few friends that they were extremely close to. Cedric was probably the only person that Jona really considered his friend (not including his brother, but Roger could be a dick at the best of times anyway).

With that being said, Jona could read Cedric like a book and even with these recent 'changes' that Cedric had been going through, his mannerisms and moods were still readable despite being more unstable as of late. Therefore, Jonathan could easily conclude that there was something very serious on his friend's mind.

But, if there was one thing he had learned from being friends with Cedric, it was that Cedric didn't  _ever_ 'want to talk about it.' Sure, he liked to whine about silly little things, just for the sake of being annoying. But, if the idiot had an actually important issue, he'd either ignore it or try and fix it himself, but never would he mention it to the people who cared. It wasn't that he was independent or anything so noble, he was just a very private and oddly self-conscious person who didn't want to be judged for his problems. Jonathan also suspected that when Cedric had relayed his issues or fears to his parents, that he was met with disinterest.

Jona didn't really get it, as he was always the type to ask for help if he needed it, but he didn't really need to get it to understand how to work around it. If Cedric wasn't going to tell anyone about his issues, then Jona just had to figure it out for himself.

Alarm bells had gone off the moment Cedric had actually started trying in class, as much as Jonathan wanted to be proud of his friend for taking his future more seriously, he knew that Cedric had no drive or self-worth and therefore would never give his future any sort of consideration. If Cedric was doing something good for himself, then it was because there was something else influencing him.

At first he'd written it off as the Diggory Patriarch finally taking a hands on approach and giving a shit about his only son's issues. And he felt his suspicions were only further confirmed when Cedric expressed how he was dreading returning home for the summer no doubt annoyed at the fact that his parents would no longer allow him to laze around.

However, after a few weeks into Second Year, it became clear that Cedric was not doing this because his parents wanted him to, the way the boy would bin their letters without even opening them showed that he couldn't have cared less about their opinions of him and certainly wasn't being controlled by them.

Yet, Jona still knew that Cedric hadn't just  _decided_ to be a contributing member to society. No, there was someone or something influencing him.

Ever since this all started, Cedric had been getting more and more volatile and moody, but it was in a rather odd manner, where strange topics would randomly set him off. Jonathan couldn't make heads or tails of it.

When May had rolled around, he had put his friend's curious behavior out of his mind. Cedric had come back from Christmas break surprisingly chipper and hadn't once blown up about some random topic.

On May 8th, he settled into his seat in the Hufflepuff stands, looking forward to being able to see the culmination of his best friend's hard work. Cedric had been getting up early, wether practice was scheduled or otherwise to train for this very match. He knew that Cedric was beyond excited to face off against Potter and possibly win the Quidditch Cup.

But, when McGonagall came nearly sprinting on the field, ordering all the players to dismount their brooms, Jona feared that all of Cedric's practice may have been for naught.

Jonathan expected Cedric to be mad. He expected the guy to pull faces and bitch and moan and maybe even pout for a day or two. It was understandable, Jona would've been mad too and he wouldn't've minded a bit of childish behaviour from his roommate given the circumstances.

So, when Cedric returned from the locker rooms to the Hufflepuff dorm, Jona and most probably everyone else present was a bit surprised to see he was the least angry out of the surly lot of players, despite being the one who had been looking forward to the game the most. In fact Cedric had looked positively calm, walking past the mass of Hufflepuffs gathered in the Common Room without a passing glance, making a beeline for the stairs, which Jona quickly followed him up.

He wondered perhaps, if it was the calm before the storm, and that Cedric would suddenly erupt in rage once they were in privacy.

Oddly, that wasn't the case. Cedric simply sighed and shrugged, proclaiming that it was a shame that it was cancelled and then reached into his school bag, pulling out his unfinished charms essay.

There was something very wrong with all of this.

"You're... very calm 'bout all of this."

The brunette looked up from his homework, grey eyes narrowed in confusion. "About what?"

Jonathan was almost certain he was being purposefully obtuse. "The match being cancelled, of course. You were really looking forward to playing Potter."

A twitch of sorts, shoulders rising and falling in rapid succession, but a blank smile entered his face. "Sure, I s'pose. But, it's just a game. I can always play him next year, or the year after."

Jona simply stared, watching as the meaningless little smile on Cedric's face remained firmly affixed. There was something wrong, he just knew it. Or...

Or maybe he just wasn't as good of a friend as he thought.

"Yeah... I agree."

-0v0-

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

There would always be other chances.

There would always be other games.

It didn't matter.

_It didn't_   _fucking matter!_

It had been resonating through his mind for the past day. He had tried and tried and  _tried._  To take it all gracefully, to be level headed, to keep his cool. But, he couldn't, not in privacy, not to himself. Sure in front of everyone else, he was the picture of placidity, a responsible little Hufflepuff who focused on his studies. But the few moments of privacy that he could salvage, the whole facade would crumble and he'd find himself whispering and hissing in anger, hunched over his journal staining page after page with ink guided by rage.

He wasn't even mad for the right reasons! He didn't care a lick that all of his practice and training had gone to waste, it didn't matter to him that his team was let down. It didn't matter that two innocent girls were petrified, that Dumbledore had been removed as Headmaster, hell, he didn't even care about whoever it was that had been taken into the Chamber or that Hogwarts may very well be closed for good.

He just wanted Potter to see him. To notice him. Appreciate him. He knew that it was a bit odd to be so focused on one person. But, just because it was odd didn't mean it was wrong. He knew that what he was doing, what he was striving for was the right thing. Or at least, it felt that way.

He'd spent a sleepless night, staring at his bed curtains as Jona snored away, hating and hating and  _hating_  the circumstances, that nothing was going his way. It wasn't fair, not in the slightest. And the next morning, when he still not had been able to expel such thoughts from his head, he trudged downstairs with his roommate, paying no notice to the overcrowded common room and he quickly made his way towards the exit, following Jonathan's hurried pace towards the Great Hall. The hallways were oddly empty, and people were still cautiously walking about in groups, fearful of being petrified. But, once the school was firmly settled in the Great Hall, the Deputy Headmistress stepped forward, face as severe as usual, but looking oddly relieved.

"As you all know there had been rumors of Hogwarts being closed due to the recent unfortunate events involving The Chamber of Secrets. It is my pleasure to inform you all that this is no longer a concern and that all of the petrified students are currently being administered mandrake draught. I am also pleased to note that Headmaster Dumbledore has been reappointed his position and will be joining us for the feast this afternoon."

There was a chorus of cheers at this revelation, though Cedric was hardly listening, his eyes instead fixed firmly upon the Gryffindor table, eyeing the empty spot where Potter would generally be seated. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the little Gryffindor wasn't involved in all of this and he only hoped that the boy hadn't ended up back in the Hospital Wing from his no doubt dangerous escapades.

He was jerked out of his worrying when Jona elbowed him rather harshly in the ribs. He glared and raised an eyebrow, dropping his fork. His friend simply grinned.

"This is great isn't it? I was pretty worried that we wouldn't even get to finish our term and that we'd have to transfer to poncey ol' Beauxbatons or somethin'."

Cedric simply nodded, turning back to stare at the Gryffindor table, only to be elbowed again.

" _What_ , Jona?"

The shorter Hufflepuff frowned at him, blinking slowly and glancing towards the Gryffindor table then back at him. "What're you lookin' at, mate?"

Cedric scoffed and shrugged, dragging his eyes to squint down at his food. "Nothing."

Jona paused before grinning widely, slapping him on the back. "Oh, I see you, Ced, you dog. I didn't know you we're into Gryffindors though! Like 'em fiery eh?"

Cedric nearly choked on his forked, turning rapidly to look incredulously at his best friend. "What?! No, it's nothing like that!"

Jonathan simply laughed, waving him over with a lofty hand and a long grin. "Sure, sure whatever you say..."

He rolled his eyes, deciding to ignore him and slowly, he found his gaze drifting back towards the Gryffindor table, his thoughts turning back to Potter.

He didn't notice, in his intense focus, the curious stare Jona was pointing in his direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of an odd note to end it on, but this pretty much marks the end of Second Year.


	10. Chapter 10

Ten:

The train ride home was, once again, fairly uneventful, Cedric was still beyond pissed about not being able to play Harry in the last match, so he had to spend the majority of his time keeping up the facade of a calm and collected person. Jona acted like usual Jona and babbled away about meaningless topics just to hear the sound of his voice, while Cedric nodded along absently, not even remotely paying attention.

Instead his mind was whirring away crafting ideas and making plans to make sure that next year would be the year that Potter finally noticed him. He would occasionally write down a plan or two, flipping past a few illegible pages that he'd previously splattered in ink in a fit of rage or something of the sort.

Sooner than he liked, the train came to a halt, and the students disembarked meeting their families and loved ones with smiles and open arms. The sight made Cedric feel a bit queasy, and the feeling only worsened upon making eye contact with his unusually somber-looking mother. It seemed that the chilly treatment that he'd given his parents over Yule Break was still in the forefront of their minds.

-0v0-

His summer had started out orderly and as expected. He'd wake up in the mornings, brush his teeth, skip breakfast and sleepily lumber out onto the field behind his family's home. He would jog for thirty minutes and then practice flying for about an hour and a half and then cool down with a few stretches and then a cold shower. After that he would review whichever subject that corresponded with the day of the week (for example: Potions and Astronomy on Tuesday, Transfiguration and History on Wednesday, ect.) for as long as he felt necessary, it would usually take up the majority of his day. Occasionally, he would pause in his studies to eat the lunch that their house elf would set out for him, though generally, he would only eat once a day as he joined his parents for a stilted dinner and then would retreat back to his room.

Around this time is where things would become a tad less orderly. He would go through his nightly motions; shower, clean his teeth, change into his nightclothes so on and so forth. But, once his head would hit the pillow, things would go awry.

Sleep was becoming a rarity for him, and he would often lie awake until the early hours of the morning, rolling and spinning in his sheets, trying to clear his jumbled up thoughts in search of sleep. But, his mind would churn and churn away moving miles a minute unable to even focus on a singular concept, he would just think and think and  _think_  about nothing at all.

And at some point in the night or another, he'd look over at his window sill and stare at the little white anemones there and idea would strike him. Every night it would pop into his head as though it were new and fresh despite it being nothing of the sort and he'd reach under his pillow and pull out his journal and write. They would always be strange little fantasies of him becoming something special, someone worth being proud of. He'd write about how Potter, would look upon him with such pride and admiration, large green eyes sparkling and rosy lips stretched into a smile.

These little fantasies would plague his dreams and would be taken a step or two further than he could ever consciously imagine. Images of moonlit skin and blown pupils would fade from his mind the next morning, everything forgotten.

And then it would start all over.

Cedric had assumed his entire summer would progress in this manner, and while he wished that he could get a few hours more sleep at night, he would not have particularly minded if it had continued that way. However, about a three weeks into the summer, his father had called him downstairs, interrupting his Herbology studies. When he was about halfway down the staircase he found his mother and father standing somewhat awkwardly in the foyer, looking up at him matching lopsided smiles on their faces. He simply remained silent and held onto the banister, waiting for one of them to elaborate.

"We..." began his father, his voice weakly trailed off and he sent a pleading look towards his wife. Her smile stretched further, becoming even more forced.

"What your father means to say is that we're very proud of you Cedric, dear."

Cedric simply stared and clutched the banister of the stairs a bit tighter, expression blank. His parents appeared further disheartened by his lack of reaction, glancing at each other somewhat nervously.

His mother continued, her voice outright quivering as she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "N- not to say that we're not always... Proud. But, we're very happy... that you've been working so hard in school."

The teen blinked slowly and sighed, face still slackened and cold. "Is there a reason you felt the need to tell me this now?" His tone was even and unforgiving, betraying no emotion whatsoever. His mother opened her mouth to respond but seemed to lose confidence and instead reached into her pocket, pulling out two folded pieces of the familiar, off-white parchment that Hogwarts used for official letters.

Cedric's eyes immediately narrowed at the sight of the letters and his feet carried him to the bottom of the stairs before he plucked them from his mother's outstretched fingers. His empty expression nearly broke into anger as he caught sight of the addresses on the back of the letters and the broken seal.

_Mr C Diggory,_

_The Second Floor Bedroom,_

_Stoatshead Hill,_

_Ottery St. Catchpole_

Not lifting his eyes from the address, he said as calmly as he could possibly muster. "This is addressed to me."

Out the corner of his eye, he could see his father nod with an uncomprehending look on his face, however his mother seemed to catch on quickly.

"I know it must seem like an invasion of privacy bu-"

" _Seem?"_  Cedric hissed, the letters crumpling in his fingers. He watched them flinch at his sharp tone and felt a festering sense of satisfaction somewhere in the pit of his stomach.

"Would you have told us?" Amos finally found his voice and he looked up at his son with an imploring expression. "You didn't even tell us when you were accepted onto the Quidditch team, in fact you rarely even write us! Excuse us for being concerned about our own son!"

The teen's face returned to it's original slackened countenance and he turned, shoving the letters into his pocket, starting up the stairs, stopping only for a short moment to hiss "It's a bit late for that." over his shoulder.

When he reached his room and his door was firmly closed behind him, he read the two headings of the letters aloud.

"Congratulations Mr. Diggory on becoming the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain. Congratulations, Mr. Diggory on becoming a Hufflepuff prefect."

He let out a long sigh, eyes closing contentedly. His legs slowly gave and he slipped down to the floor, back against the door. He felt a warming sense of relief.

Everything was going right.

-0v0-

Cedric rarely spent any time around his parents after that point, even going as far as making his own food so to avoid them at meals. They seemed to be getting increasingly desperate to see him however, and would often come up to his room and stand in his doorway while he was studying or reading, asking irksome, meaningless questions about what he was doing. During dinner they would actually come up to his room, proclaiming that 'it was his favorite' (he still wasn't quite sure how they could possibly be serving his favorite every night) and that he ought to come down and eat with them. He would always turn them down, politely but coldly.

However one rainy morning, Cedric had only been able to complete his daily laps before he was soaked to the bone and shivering. In the end he decided there was no choice but to go back inside, hop into a warm shower and reschedule his training for when it was drier.

Though upon entering the house he was immediately accosted by his mother, who dragged him inside and pushed him in front of the crackling fireplace, slinging a thick blanket over his shoulders.

"Cedric!" she had exclaimed, hand on her hips. "What were you doing out there in that kind of weather?"

"Training." Cedric had replied, swiping the blanket off of his shoulders and heading towards the stairs. She attempted to call him back, but after he proclaimed he was going to take a warm shower, she quieted. But, once he stepped out of the bathroom she was back on his tail.

She had enough nerve to grab him by his arm and practically lead him back downstairs into the dining hall, fussing obnoxiously all the while.

"Honestly,  _training_ in the pouring rain? I'm certain you'll have caught a cold or something of the sort. At least there's Hopsy's soup to warm you up-" ect. Ect. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes, who did she think he was fooling? He'd ran around in the rain plenty of times before and no one had given it any mind.

He was plopped down at the table, his father across from him, his mother next to him and a steaming bowl of tomato soup pushed in front of him by their doe-eyed house elf who popped away after a deep bow.

He stared into the thick red liquid for a fair few moments, reveling in his parents silence, before looking up to address them, hand folded in his lap.

"What is it?"

It was almost comical how they both flinched in unison, glancing at one another minutely before looking off in opposite directions.

"What's what, son?" exclaimed his father, the confusion in his voice over-pronounced and clearly fake. His dark brown eyes seemed to look in every direction besides Cedric's own silver.

The teen merely drew a long sigh hitherto tucking into his soup, keeping his eyes firmly on the pale grain of their dining room table. He could feel his parents eyes boring into him, but he ignored them, instead allowing his mind to wander onto more important topics, namely how he was going to make up for the lost training due to the rain.

He'd been so focused on this, that he didn't even notice when his parents began to stiltedly converse with each other. However a certain topic came up that he could never tune out.

"Yes, well since Potter is staying at the Leaky Cauldron currently, the extra Aurors are necessary."

His spoon froze halfway to his mouth, grey eyes tracing up to look his father directly in the face for the first time in a saddeningly long period.

His parents didn't notice his stare and continued on.

"Harry Potter in the Leaky Cauldron? No wonder they need all those Aurors with Black on the loose. The boy is certainly brave though, I would be scared out of my mind if I knew the  _monster_  responsible for my parents' death had broken out of Azkaban."

Cedric stood, chair pushing out behind him with a loud screech. The sound caused his parents to flinch rather exaggeratedly and look over in his direction.

"Cedri-" began his mother, however he didn't allow her to finish.

"I'm finished," he motioned to his half-eaten bowl of soup. "Thanks."

He swiftly stepped out of the dining room before his parents could even process exactly what had happened.

He'd spent a solid thirty minutes pacing back and forth before he came to a decision. He couldn't in good conscience leave Potter alone at the Leaky Cauldron while Sirius Black was on the loose, he didn't know what his mum was on about when she said he'd been the cause of the Potters' death, but he wasn't gonna ignore it. Sure, there was most probably a horde of Aurors stationed in every corner of Diagon, but those Ministry fools didn't know Potter like Cedric did. They didn't know how unpredictable and elusive he could be, but Cedric. Cedric knew. It would be morally wrong not to lend his efforts in protecting the little savior.

So, that night he packed his his school trunk, under the assumption that Potter would be remaining in the alley until school started back up. He did, however omit his school robes, he'd been planning to buy a new set as he was still wearing ones from first year that had been only slightly altered to reach his ankles, although the alterations had been in made in his third year so they only actually reached his mid-calf. He also thought that he might perhaps get a more flattering cut, since his figure seemed to be the most desireable part about him.

Wardrobe plans aside he prepared himself to leave in the morning, it took him quite a bit of self-control not to hop into the floo the moment his parents revealed that Potter was staying in Diagon, but it took him even more to wait until the next morning.

But, after a sleepless night of staring at (certain photos within) his journal, he scrambled out of bed at around 6:00 AM and clambered down the stairs, trunk balanced on his left shoulder, and summer robe slung over his right. He stepped into the fireplace in the entrance hall, ducking his head with a sardonic smile, it was only this time last year that his head didn't even brush the top of it. With a flare of bright green his disappeared from the Diggory Family home.

-0v0-

It did not take him long to figure out which room was Harry Potter's. An interesting thing about the Leaky Cauldron was that is was only two floors, the bottom being the bar along with a few private parlors and the top being the floor for the tenants. This floor was a fair bit larger than the former, expanded by a liberal use of space charms, but it was still only a singular hall of rooms. All Cedric had to do was watch how that Auror's tended to linger around room 11 after nightfall to see which room was Potters.

Within the second day of his stay at the Leaky Cauldron Cedric could easily tell where Potter was staying and what the basics of his schedule was. Potter's day would start with him settling onto one of the Leaky Cauldron's grubby little barstools and ordering breakfast. For that reason, Cedric would settle into a booth preferably one that would give him a good view of both Potter and all the entrances (but just Potter worked fine as well) and would order whatever Potter did. Doing this oddly made him feel like he was back at Hogwarts, eating another meal and it made him realize just how often he would watch Potter in the Great Hall.

After Potter would finish eating (whether Cedric was finished or not) he would follow the boy into the Alley, making sure to keep a fair amount of space between them, after all, Potter was very independent and deserved his space, he most probably wouldn't appreciate the idea of someone following him around, whether it be for his protection or not.

Cedric would then spend the next few hours or so trailing after Potter as the boy would move from shop to shop looking at all the magical items with fascination. It amazed Cedric how Potter could enter the Alley day after day and still find something to captivated by. Magic seemed so much more wondrous through the Gryffindor's eyes. It made Cedric a bit more aware of how growing up in a Pureblood family had raised him to be somewhat unappreciative of magic.

But, watching Potter's eyes grow wide with wonder was a truly entrancing sight that would leave the teen with a deep longing to approach. Cedric would spend much of his time wishing he could stand beside Potter and speak with him, share with him, rather than watch him from a distance. He would imagine it, his eyes firmly fixed upon Potter. He would imagine them side by side, he would imagine looking down into Potter's bright green gaze, meeting the boy's cheeky grin with one of his own. He could imagine they way their shouldesr might bump on occasion while they walked together. And he could almost just  _almost_  imagine what it would sound like to hear his name upon those lips.

Not quite though.

But he could wait.

Cedric didn't actually tail Potter constantly, he was certain that if he did it too frequently he would garner suspicion from the Aurors stationed around the Alley, so when the boy seemed like he wasn't going to be much moving for awhile, Cedric would go off to complete some of his own shopping.

On the third day of Cedric's stay, Potter had settled down at Florean Fortescue's to work on homework, so the Hufflepuff had headed over to Gringotts to get some money for school supplies, however as he had been exiting the bank he'd been stopped by an elderly wizard, who'd tapped him on the shoulder, expression looking urgent.

"Excuse me, dear boy, but you wouldn't happen to be the son of Amos Diggory would you?"

Cedric blinked nodding slowly and extended a hand to shake. "Yes, that's me. I'm sorry have we met?"

The man ignored his hand, but Cedric couldn't bring himself to be offended as the elder wizard seemed quite panicked.

"We met once at a Gala when you were a fair bit younger, but that's besides the point. What're you doing here, lad?" he exclaimed, eyes wide. "Your father told me you'd been missing for almost three days now! Your parents are worried sick about you! Have you been in the Alley this entire time?"

Realization dawned upon Cedric with those words. He'd been so caught up with Potter that he'd forgotten to tell his parents that he was even leaving the house. He felt a bit worried by that actually, three whole days and something as important as that hadn't occurred to him even once.

He nodded to the man smiling somewhat apologetically to the man. "Thank you for informing me of this, sir. It seems I've made a mistake, I'll contact my parents as soon as I'm able."

The man still looked a bit unconvinced, but curtly nodded all the same, eyes narrowed. "See that you do." he said before hurrying into the bank.

Cedric had intended to make a beeline straight back to the Leaky Cauldron and floo his parents, however halfway down the Alley he saw Potter still sitting at a little outdoor table at Fortescue's, stopping Cedric in his tracks. He couldn't leave Potter here for who knows how long, defenseless, just to assuage his parents' 'worries.' His parents would just have to wait until Cedric was certain Potter was settled safely into his room.

That turned out to be hours later, after Cedric had watched Potter eat his dinner and trudge upstairs to his dorm. By this point the sun had gone down and the majority of the other tenants had retired to sleep as well. Cedric didn't actually even remember that he was supposed to be flooing his parents until he saw a family of three come hurrying out the floo and up to the bartender to ask for a suite.

He felt a bit guilty for a moment for forgetting, but then remembered that this was his  _parents_  it's not like they actually cared that Cedric had been missing for days. They were no doubt only asking about his whereabouts to keep up appearances more than out of actual worry.

With a put-upon sigh he took his last bite of baklava and a final swig of his butterbeer before meandering over to stand behind a man crouched in front of the caller's floo, who seemed to be trying to placate his very aggravated spouse.

It was at least another three minutes before it was open again, and Cedric squatted to a crouch, throwing a handful of floo powder into the fireplace waiting for the ruby flames to turn fully emerald before sticking his face inside and calling out the Diggory floo address.

Surprisingly it was his father who answered rather than Hopsy, who usually checked to see who was calling before turning it over to whomever they were calling for. The man looked rather distressed, with dark circles under his eyes and his hair sticking up in odd places, as though he hadn't brushed it in a day or two, there was a sheen of sweat across his forehead.

"If this does not have any relation to the whereabouts of my son then kindly fuck o-  _Cedric_!"

His father's scream made Cedric flinch so hard the top of his head smacked against the fireplace, his vision blurring for a split second.

"Hey, dad." he replied, rubbing the crown of his head.

"Cedric, where-" His brown eyes widened behind his crooked glasses and he turned around, head disappearing for a moment, but Cedric could still hear him scream "ELAINA! ELAINA GET IN HERE QUICK!" It was a moment more before both his mother's and his father's head was crammed into the fireplace, side-by-side. Cedric blinked owlishly at their actions, recoiling a bit.

His mother seemed to be in an even worse state than his father, Cedric had never seen her with a hair out of place and makeup on her features, so it was very strange to see her bare-faced and messy-haired.

"Oh, Cedric! My baby boy!" it was almost impossible to understand what she'd said as her voice was thick, tears falling freely from her eyes. "I- I had thought... Where have you  _been_?"

Cedric blinked, he'd never really seen either of his parents show so much emotion, let alone cry. He wasn't certain how to respond. The looks on their faces seemed genuinely worried and fearful, but something somewhere in his mind was screaming that it was a lie, that they didn't care.

He wasn't really sure where it came from.

"I-" he trailed off, unnerved at how they seemed to be hanging onto his every word. It seemed wrong to say that he'd been staying in Diagon Alley, but there wasn't really anything else to say. "I've been staying at the Leaky Cauldron."

" _Why_ , son?" his father boy was astoundingly pained, and along with the flood of guilt that washed over him came the tiniest curl of euphoria, of control. His father continued, "Is this about us reading your letters? We're so sorry! Please,  _please_  just come home! We di- we didn't mean to make you feel... Whatever it is your feeling."

He watched his mother nod rapidly, eyes imploring and that little spike of euphoria made him want to milk it, to hurt them more, to watch them quiver and beg in apology. But- but, that was wrong. And that's not what the intention of this call was supposed to be. So instead of insulting them of mutilating them further he just shook his head.

"It's not that, I- had thought I'd asked you if I could stay with Jona in Diagon for the last of the break. I'm sorry for worrying you. You guys didn't do anything wrong."

The way the relief broke across their faces was oddly draining, as though they were taking away something lovely the more their expressions lightened. Cedric thought that maybe feeling that way about their previous distress might be wrong, but he wasn't certain what to do about that.

"It's alright, dear." his mother said, voice soft and deeply grateful, her baby blue eyes were warm, despite the tears still lingering along the edges. "We're just glad to know that you're safe and that you..." she trailed off, but she didn't really need to continue.

His father spoke up, his expression mirroring his spouse's. "I realize you're staying with your mate and all, but do you think you could come home? Just for tonight."

Cedric wanted to reject, he really wanted to see their countenances crumple under his cold dismissal, but supposed it was because of that heady desire that he nodded and stepped through the floo.

He could tolerate them for a night.

-0v0-

True to his word Cedric only stayed the night and bid his parents a polite farewell at around 11:00 in the morning, just in time to catch Harry on the way down to breakfast. He actually had felt a bit bad for lying about staying with Jona, especially when his mother had foisted a little care-package filled with sweets and baked-goods (no doubt Hopsy's doing) for Cedric's sole friend into his arms. He decided to assuage his guilt he would owl it to Jona as soon as he found the time.

The last few weeks of summer break went quickly after that, with nothing really remarkable happening (though in a strange way, Cedric found everyday he spent near Harry remarkable). He got his school supplies shopping done quite quickly, buying all the books that would prepare him for his OWLs. Earlier on in the summer he had actually owled the Deputy Headmistress to inquire if he could switch classes for his NEWTs. Her reply had been prompt and she had expressed her satisfaction with him reaching for higher achievements and had told him that he could join any NEWT level class as long as he completed the necessary preliminaries for it, the majority of which meant scoring an Acceptable or higher on. It was his hope that he could drop History, Divination and Muggle studies and replace them with Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, leaving a free period for him to use for studying and homework. He knew it would be an extremely tough year and that he would have to get a lot of studying in if he wanted to pass the tests, but he was fairly sure he could pull it off with enough effort on his part.

Aside from buying things for classwork he also took the time to head over to Gladrags, bypassing Madam Malkins in hopes that the pricier robes would be better suited for him. It turned out that the agonizingly boring two hours spent staring off to space as a flamboyant attendant cooed over his 'adonis-like' form and the few extra galleons were worth it, as his school robes honestly looked better on him than the dress robes he'd worn to the last ministry gala. He was so impressed by them, in fact, that he returned a day later to purchase a few sets of day robes.

Outside of school shopping, Cedric didn't do much else. When he wasn't tailing Potter, he was studying or doing the minimal amount of Quidditch training he could do in the privacy of his room. He did get to spend a day with Jona as he visited the Alley to go school supplies shopping, which had been a bit stressful as he had a hard time keeping an eye on Potter while still hanging out with Jonathan. But, it was nice all the same, especially when Jona had expressed that Cedric's new robes suited him well.

Before he knew it though, the break had come to an end, and he'd gone home the night before he was to return to Hogwarts to stay with his parents before bidding them farewell in the morning. They had been a bit surprised, though seemingly happy with his return.

Strangely enough, by morning Cedric was filled with a jittery excitement at the concept of getting to see Potter again, it hadn't even been a full day and...

It was a bit ridiculous.

But, ignorable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you cant tell already, Cedric's parents are kinda pushovers. I know a lot of you have questions about his stay in Diagon and probably think this chapter is full of plot holes (and I mean... it kinda is), but there is an explanation for the majority of the confusion, just be patient. You'll see.
> 
> Thank you all for reading, feel free to leave any feedback you may have.


	11. Chapter 11

Eleven:

It was odd to see the platform when it wasn't filled to the brim with harried students and their tearful guardians, but Cedric supposed it was to be expected when he showed up almost 40 minutes early alongside his mother and father. There were only a few people about, most of them seemed to be first years who wanted to be on time, but clearly overshot it.

"So, why is it you wanted to come early again, son?" questioned his father, staring about the empty place with a slightly uncomfortable look on his face.

"Goodness, Amos." chastised his mother, looking at her husband with an exasperated expression. "We were prefects ourselves, you should remember having showing up early to direct the first years and their families."

The man only looked at her blankly, clearly not recalling before she rolled her eyes in response, reaching over to pat her child gingerly on the shoulder. "Well..." she trailed off, looking a bit unsure of what to say, as though she hadn't escorted her son to the Platform four of times before.

She simply gave him a shaky nod and a "Have fun, dear." before stepping back, motioning to her husband.

Them man simply smiled thinly, and clapped his son on the shoulder before looping arms with his wife and disappearing through the barrier leading back to King's Cross. Cedric stared after them, right hand raised in a lofty wave until they were finally gone.

Turning back, he looked across the almost empty platform save for a few overly eager first years and their parents. Without the bright red steam engine merrily billowing puffy white clouds out of its chimney, an almost depressing feeling hung about the air.

Despite what his mother said, he did not come early to complete his prefectorial duties. If that had been the case he certainly wouldn't have shown up quite as early, most only showing 10 or 15 minutes before the train was to depart. No, the reason he was actually here he wanted to meet Jona as early as possible.

He knew that was his Prefect duties there was a possibility that he would not be able to spend as much time with his best friend as usual, being too busy making rounds up and down the train. It was a bit uncharacteristic of him as he usually did not pay much mind to whatever Jona babbled during their long arduous trips on the Hogwarts express, but for some reason he felt it necessary to speak to his friend for at least a short while before he made his way to Hogwarts, as a tradition of sorts.

In his letters Jonathan did not seem unwelcome to the idea of getting to see his friend a bit early despite the fact that they had met a couple times over summer break. In fact it had seemed to Cedric that Jona had been becoming increasingly more eager to see him as of late. Oddly invested in how Cedric had been faring. Though then again, Cedric always found it a bit odd when anyone showed the slightest interest in him.

It had been a few more moments of Cedric starting about the eerily empty platform before Jona came barreling through the barricade, his fraternal twin, Roger following shortly after at a more leisurely pace alongside their parents.

"Cedric!" called the stocky Hufflepuff, waving as though the station was not dead empty and he was not clearly in sight. Despite this, Cedric waved back, grinning.

The twins bid their parents affectionate goodbyes and the Davies Matriarch even afforded Cedric a few soft words of congratulations at his becoming a prefect, before giving her sons each a final peck on the cheek and then disappearing back through the brick barrier, her husband in tow.

Jona's "It's good to see you mate." was accompanied by a firm clap to Cedric's shoulder and a wide grin. "How've ya been since I last saw you?"

"Pretty good," nodded the taller Hufflepuff, turning to Roger. "Hey Roger."

The boy in question had seemed to resigned himself to the fate of being ignored and had begun staring listlessly in no general direction, started in slight surprise, grinning a bit bashfully.

"Oh, er hey Cedric. Congratulations on becoming a Prefect, looks like we're in this together, eh?"

"Yeah," Cedric racked his brains, trying to recall if Jona had ever mentioned that his brother had gotten a Prefect badge. He supposed he must've considering how much Jona enjoyed talking about his life, but honestly, Cedric couldn't recall. He'd been having a hard time keeping up with trivial things like that as of late.

"So," Jona said, interrupting the awkward silence that had spawned from Cedric becoming lost in his own thoughts. "You gotta tell me, how'd you convince your parents to not only let you stay in Diagon for a week, but also pay for it?"

Cedric frowned, scratching the back of his neck. He knew no matter what he said he was going to come out of this sounding like a spoiled idiot, Jona just wouldn't  _get it_. "I kinda didn't... I just checked into the Leaky Cauldron."

Both of the Davies twins looked rather skeptical at this, their arms crossing in an eerie resemblance, their relation suddenly very apparent. It was Roger who spoke. "You stayed there for a  _week_  by yourself without them saying a thing? They didn't say anything about you draining money out their account?"

"No! No, I used the joint account Grandpa Eldrich set up for me. And... I did eventually contact them... a few days in."

" _Days_?" Hissed Jona eyes wide and mouth agape. "It took you days to tell 'em? And they didn't make you come home? Mum would'a tanned us black and blue if either us tried something like tha'!"

He traced his grey eyes shamefully to the floor, the back of his neck burning hot. "Well... I may've told them I was sharing a suite with you..."

"WHAT?!" Jona's affronted shriek attracted a few curious glances from the occupants of the steadily filling platform. Roger seemed a bit confused by his brother's incredulity, but being who he was, Cedric knew that lying was one of the greatest misdeeds a Hufflepuff could commit.

"I'm sorry." he mumbled, truly meaning it. He did feel remorse in lying, but still felt it justified considering the circumstances. "I just needed a some space from them, they've been suffocating as of late, y'know with me doing so much better in school and all. I guess I'm not used to all the attention."

His best friend sighed, shaking his head. "I bet if you just told 'em that they would've let up a bit. In fact, I bet they knew it already and  _that_  was why they let you stay, not 'cause some nonsense lie."

"Yeah maybe." he could only reply awkwardly, hands stuffed firmly in the pockets of his slacks eyes looking everywhere but Jona's disappointed countenance.

They paused for a moment, another awkward silence ensuing before Jona once again interrupted it.

"Well, at least you got a fashion sense over the summer."

Cedric huffed a laugh, a rude reply already on his tongue.

-0v0-

The Prefect's Compartment was more spacious than Cedric had imagined it would be. He'd always presumed it would just perhaps just be a slightly larger version of a regular compartment, but in reality it was, in fact, an entire train car with a few evenly spaced tables and soft benches. He apparently had not been the only one to think it would be this way, as Roger too took in the carriage with an air of surprise.

Despite showing up to the platform far earlier than any of the other Prefects, they were not the first ones to enter the compartment. Upon walking in they were greeted with the sight of Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater sitting at separate tables, doing their damnedest best to ignore the other's existence. No doubt, the sting of their messy break up at the end of last term still fresh. Coldly, Clearwater simply lifted the book in her hands higher, not bothering to acknowledge the two new additions to the space, however Weasley stood from his seat, his usual sneeringly imperial expression decorating his face and swiftly walked over to shake each of their hands.

"Diggory, Davies, it's a pleasure to welcome the both of you to the Hogwarts Prefect System, take a seat wherever you'd like." His tone was snobbish as per usual, but still held a warmth that proved his words sincere.

The Compartment filled quickly after that and Cedric was happily surprised to find out that Cesaria had managed to become the female Hufflepuff Prefect of his year. In truth he was still felt somewhat bad for taking the Seeker position from her, she'd always been, at least, polite to him.

When everyone has settled into a seat, both Clearwater and Weasley had stood and introduced themselves as Headboy and Girl, launching into a long drawn out speech about how honorable and revered the Hogwarts Prefect system was and so on and so forth. Cedric honestly tuned the two of them out, by the tone of Clearwater's voice it was apparent that it was all obligatory nonsense anyway (Weasley sounded quite inspired, but that guy seemed to just take pleasure in any and all things dull).

Eventually they moved onto the topic of Prefect's responsibilities at which point Clearwater seemed to finally lose the last vestiges of her interest and gave Weasley full stage, shuffling back to her seat and opening up the heavy book from before. Weasley barely noticed her retreat and went on with his unnervingly passionate speech about rules and expectations.

"-each of you posses a power over your peers that, when abused can lead to serious consequences, for that reason, Clearwater and I have introduced a system in which every time you take points or assign a detention to another student, it will be automatically recorded in the assigned notebooks I will be passing out in a moment's time. At the end of each bi-week you will turn in your notebooks to us and we will review them. It is not our intention to give you the impression that we do not trust you, but there are occasions where people change once power is in their hands."

Cedric found the system to be a pretty ingenious idea. Though he'd never personally encountered a biased prefect he'd certainly heard horror stories of Slytherin students going mad with power and mercilessly taking points from every Gryffindor in sight.

Weasley droned on and eventually passed out the small brown notebooks and dismissed the fifth year Prefects to make their rounds.

"As for the rest of you, you may remain here or return to your respective compartments if you so please. Sixth years, your rounds begin in two hours, seventh years will not begin for another four, if you need to speak to or need assistance from Penn- Clearwater or I, we will be in the compartments across from each other at the front of the train. You're all dismissed, enjoy your trip." And with a curt nod he stepped out of the train car, Clearwater following after waiting a few moments.

Cedric and Roger both agreed that they were happily surprised to find out that they would not be spending the entire trip patrolling that aisles like they had presumed they were going to have to do. Their rounds went by quite quickly, actually, having each other to speak to as the roamed up and down the halls, occasionally helping a first or second year settle their luggage or directing a couple of people towards the bathrooms. There was hardly any unruly behavior the only instance being a lower year Gryffindor who had somehow managed to sneak a funpack from Zonko's onto the train, which Roger promptly confiscated after promising that the boy could pick it up from the Prefect's Lounge at the end of the train ride.

"Well, that wasn't so bad." commented Roger as they meandered around looking for their friends. "Glad we didn't have to break up a duel or anything like that."

Cedric had to withhold a wince at that comment. He had actually been hoping for quite the opposite. Breaking up wizarding duels no matter the age of said-duelists could be rather dangerous. It would've been a nice boost to his public persona if he had managed to encounter and subdue one. In all truthfulness he'd been hoping to stumble across the inevitable Malfoy/Potter confrontation. Taking points from the Slytherin-terror would surely catch Potter's eye.

"Yeah, I think most of the arguments don't start until after people start getting restless, hence why they had the youngest Prefects do their rounds first."

Roger nodded. "That makes sense, oh hey, there's Jona. I guess, I'll see you later then."

Cedric waved before closing the compartment door. "Yeah, bye."

Jona was, of course, reading yet another raunchy romance novel upon Cedric's entrance and only put it down after he seemed to find a proper stopping point.

"So," said the shorter boy, snapping the paperback closed. "How were your rounds, then? Encounter any drama?" He scooted forward in his seat, looking quite eager for Cedric's reply.

Cedric rolled his eyes, leaning back into the cushioned bench and pulling his carry on from the overhead. "Hardly. It was pretty boring outside of Roger's constant stream of commentary. I'm quite certain he talks almost as much as you."

"How rude!" clucked Jona in fake affront, chucking an empty chocolate frog box at him. "And after I went through the trouble of dragging your carry on all the way here (which is quite nice by the way where did you get it?) AND saving you a seat."

He shot Jona an unimpressed look as he rifled through his bag for his travel quill and journal. "My grandmother bought it for me, I'll have to ask her. And there's hardly anything in it, Jona. If you were dragging something it was more likely your OWN bag that you fill to the brim with trashy 'romance' novels."

The affront on Jona's face probably wasn't faked this time around. "TRASHY? How dare you! You couldn't write a book like this if you devoted your entire life to the craft!"

"Thank Merlin for that." Murmured Cedric, flipping through his journal in search of an empty page.

"What do you write in that thing anyway?" hissed the shorter boy, clearly still hot about the previous topic.

"Just notes." was the vague answer he received.

" _Of_?"

He froze. What was he to say? He bought it with the intention of planning and taking note of his social and educational progression but-

He flipped past a page practically overflowing with meandering, fanciful pipe-dreams followed by an orderly bullet list. Perhaps he shouldn't answer.

"I was hoping I'd get to encounter a fight or something, really."

Jona chuckled fixing Cedric with a knowing stare. "Way to change the subject, but alright. We're you really, though? Why would you want a fight to break out in the first place?"

He had thought it would be obvious. "To break one up."

"Oh, that's dangerous talk there, Ced. Careful, someone might confuse you for a Gryffindor."

He couldn't help but laugh at that.

The trainride continued in that manner, Jona and Cedric occasionally sharing quips as they went about their own business and for a little while Cedric could feel all of his self imposed responsibilities melt away and he could just simply enjoy himself. He realized that he maybe hadn't been paying as much mind to Jonathan as he had the previous summers. Perhaps he should remedy that.

The train stopped. The lights flickered out. A chill fell over the compartment and a sense of gloom that he'd only ever experienced in the privacy of his own mind overtook him.

He stepped towards the door, but a hand wrapped around his wrist before he could open it. He turned around and squinted through the darkness, barely making out Jona's imploring expression. He sat back down and waited.

After what could have been minutes or hours the lights flickered back on and Percy Weasley's voice filtered through the intercom, echoing down the almost silent train in urgent tones.

"If the Healer on board could please report to carriage three compartment seven a student is in need of your assistance. Prefects sixth year and above please report to the Prefect's Lounge, Ms. Clearwater will instruct you from there. To the rest of the student body; please remain in your compartments for the duration of the trip unless there is an immediate emergency, an upper year Prefect will be by to make sure you are accounted for. Thank you all for your cooperation."

The telltale crackle of the intercom snapped the both of them out of their respective trances and they both looked back at the other with wide eyes.

"What'dya think that was?" slurred Jonathan, a disoriented expression on his face.

Cedric shrugged, eyebrows furrowed as he glanced out the frosted window pane as the rain tapped incessantly against it. "I don't know."

-0v0-

He wasn't there,  _again._

Cedric wanted to scream. Why couldn't Potter just be  _safe_ for  _once_? He had had an uneasy feeling in his gut when Weasley's voice sounded grimly over the intercom in the train, because it just somehow  _always_  ended up being Potter. Cedric didn't know what the poor boy did to deserve the rotten luck that he had, but it was getting old fast.

He stared closer at the faces of the Gryffindors in Potter's year. They seemed calm for the most part, so he could presume that the boy was not in any life threatening danger, but he still wanted to pout a bit. He'd been hoping a little that Potter might notice his new robes or prefect badge.

Silly, but still.

"Yeah, but did you hear  _why_ he's in the hospital wing?" he overheard a younger year (Ernest McMaxon or something like that) Hufflepuff, hissing in a pitiful attempt at a whisper. He knew immediately who they were discussing of course.

"No, why?"

"He  _fainted_  apparently! Heard the Reserve Healer saying it was because of  _Dementors._ "

" _Dementors_?" exclaimed the other younger year in astonishment and Cedric couldn't help but secretly mirror her shock. Surely the Ministry wasn't foolish enough to put those things on a train full of children.

He felt a sharp pain in his side and glanced over to see Jona rearing his arm back to elbow him again. " _What_?"

His friend remained unapologetic and spoke. "You've been staring at your potatoes for pretty long there, is something the matter?"

Cedric sent another glance at the Gryffindor, holding back a frown. "Not really. Just overheard someone saying there were Dementors on the train."

"Really? I s'pose that explains why it got so cold and what not, bit hard to believe the Ministry would put 'em on the Hogwarts express though."

Cedric nodded. "That's what I was thinking, I mean I get they wanna catch Black an' all, but this seems reckless. Makes me uneasy."

His unease didn't get any better after Dumbledore's announcements either. His sleep plagued with images of Potter being spirited away by hooded monsters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's a pleasant note to end on.


	12. Chapter 12

Twelve:

After listening to the Malfoy-spawn drone obnoxiously about Potter fainting on the train and watching the brat pantomime swooning through the duration of breakfast; Cedric was really in no mood to go to any class, let alone Defense Against the Dark Arts. His sleepless night added nothing to his temperament either and if it were his second year or earlier he'd probably have skipped out, first class of the year be dammed. But, upon seeing Potter settled between his two perpetual hanger-ons looking only slightly pale, Cedric simply squared his shoulders and tucked into his eggs, resigning himself to a rough day.

But, about five minutes into Professor Lupin's class proved that his day would not be perhaps as terrible as he'd originally anticipated. The man seemed unusually competent compared to his predecessors and Cedric found himself thankful for his presence with OWLs but a stone's throw away. Based upon the look on Jona's face his sentiment was shared. In fact, the entire class seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief after unanimously realizing the the guy wasn't yet another sorry excuse for a Defense Professor.

"It has come to my attention," continued the man after a polite introduction. "That your curriculum is quite well...  _lacking_."

Cedric was quite certain he heard someone scoff "Understatement of the century." but, it may have just been his own mind.

"Thusly, I've decided that it would be best for me to give a rapid-fire crash course until October and then we could take an accumulative quiz to see where we need to go into more detail."

A few people looked quite wary at this; Hufflepuffs generally didn't take well to fast-paced learning, but Cedric thought the man seemed proficient enough to cater to their needs and was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The man clapped his palms together, a more easygoing smile crossing his face. "But, for now let's do something a bit more fun! If you'll all follow me."

They ended up in a normally unused classroom, empty save for the quaking wardrobe at the front of the room. Upon catching sight of it, Jona immediately paled.

"He's mad, there's no way I'm getting near that thing."

Cedric frowned, eyes turning back to the wardrobe. "Why? What is i-"

"I had originally procured this creature for my third years, but considering how behind you all are, I think it perhaps best that the upper years have a go as well. Does anyone have a guess as to what this may be, then?"

"A boggart." said a voice towards the back of the room, Cedric wasn't certain who exactly it belonged to.

"Indeed!" nodded the man, looking quite pleased. "Ten points to Hufflepuff! And does anyone here perhaps know what the incantation is to banish a Boggart?"

"Riddikulus." Cedric intoned, eyes still fixed on the wardrobe that seemed to become increasingly violent in tremors. He felt a sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach. He was fairly certain whatever his greatest fear was, it wasn't something he wanted  _anyone_  knowing, let alone the virtual strangers he went to class with.

Despite the looks of horror that were rapidly dawning upon his students' face Lupin continued his lecture before instructing everyone to line up in front of the now near deafeningly loud wardrobe. Ignoring the morose atmosphere the man merrily motioned for the first student to step forward, opening the closet with a flick of his wand.

The chilling mood dissipated quickly as one after another student stood up to their fears (which, considering that they were Hufflepuffs were honestly pretty arbitrary). By the time it was Cedric's turn, he was outright laughing at some of the nonsensical things that people were apparently afraid of.

He was still laughing when Jona gave him a light push forward towards the already warping being, but it stopped with nary a breath. His eyes widened, his ears buzzing the conversations fading behind him as he became bewitched by what stood in front of him, the smile slipping from his face like rain down a window pane.

It was a mirror. And there he stood his reflection, recognizable, but not quite himself. Or rather not his  _current_  self. His twelve year old self stared back, eyes dull and shoulders slumped. It took a moment longer for him to realize that he was not the only one in the mirror, too busy analyzing the boy's face with mounting disgust.

His parents stood on either side of his reflection, strained smiles on their faces. He could hear their voices coming from somewhere behind him, weak, as though it pained them greatly to speak to him at all.

" _I'm so proud of you, Ced._ " rasped his father, eyes darkened with repugnance. " _Don't listen to what everyone says_. I  _don't think you're useless._ "

" _That's right!_ " added his mother, fake cheer dripping with every word. She couldn't even look at him, lips curled in smile that looked more like a grimace as she stared at her shoes. " _I'll always love you!_ "

Cedric felt himself stumble backwards as a his of revulsion escaped the back of his throat in the form of a yelp.  _This_ was his biggest fear? His former self and his parents' disapproval? Surely not! That was his past. A surge of anger erupted up the base of his spine. This  _wasn't_ his biggest fear! This wasn't a fear at all. This was his past, and he'd let it have  _no_ sway over him.

He raised his wand, quaking with rage but before he could even properly aim, the image before him shivered beginning to reshape. As it flipped rapidly from form to form Cedric's eyes zeroed in on a glimmer of alabaster skin and black curls and he knew immediately what would take shape.

" _No!_ " he snapped. And before it even settled, he cried " _Riddikulus_!" and watched as a flock of doves took the being's place, his expression grim as stray, white feathers floated to the floor around him.

He flinched violently as a hand settled on his shoulder.

"Nice one, mate." commented Jona with a laugh. "I couldn't even tell what it was your scared of. Your reflection or something? Fair enough, I s'pose, with an ugly mug like yours!"

He just gave his friend a light shove before heading to the back of the line, ignoring Jonathan's guffaws.

He let out a sigh of relief, not noticing curious brown eyes watching him from across the room.

"That wasn't so bad." Jona had commented as everyone slowly filed back into the corridor. Cedric nodded, but internally cringed. It certainly could've gone  _worse_ , but he it still felt it wasn't quite pleasant enough to be considered ' _not bad.'_

"Mr. Diggory, if you could stay behind for just a moment, please."

He looked over his shoulder to see the Professor leaning leisurely against the only slightly tremoring wardrobe, an inquisitive look in his eyes.

Cedric sent a confused shrug in Jona's direction before nodding, motioning for his friend to leave without him with a wave. "Yes, Professor?"

The man appeared to have trouble formulating exactly it is he wanted to say. His jaw ticked in a slightly agitated manner before he finally spoke.

"I noticed your boggart and I feel that I must ask... Is everything...  _alright_  at home?"

Cedric blinked rapidly at this, resisting the urge to reply yes and a second urge to cackle. He thought for a moment. Things weren't necessarily  _perfect_  at home, but it was hardly whatever the man was imagining. He'd never felt as if he needed to approach an authority figure simply because his parents were a little distant. (Or at least, they  _were_ distant, now they seem to be a little overbearing in all truthfulness).

He put on his shiniest smile. "Everything's fine, sir, but thank you for the concern."

Judging by the look on the man's face, he may have taken a bit too long to answer. All the same, he was allowed to leave after a curt 'Gooday.'

He wasn't quite sure if that little encounter made the whole lesson better or worse.

-0v0-

His first practice as Quidditch Captain went well if Cedric did say so himself. Oliver Wood was indisputably the most enthusiastic Quidditch Captain to ever grace Hogwarts, but Cedric thought he wasn't  _too_ far behind. Sure, is wasn't exactly Quidditch itself that Cedric was enthusiastic about, but rather one specific game, or rather one specific participant of one specific game, but it's not like his team could tell that and thusly they couldn't help but adopt his chipper attitude throughout practice.

He was quite satisfied with his picks as well, his newest chaser Cadwallader seemed like an especially promising addition that would hopefully make up for Hufflepuff's less than stellar offensive line up. Fleet as well seemed like he would be able to hold his own on defense given enough TLC.

Filled with optimism (and fantastical images of shaking a winningly grinning Harry Potter's hand after a close match) Cedric and his crew trained hard and he could not help the smug satisfaction upon overhearing their comments about his improved physique in the Common Room later that evening.

He was so up his arse about his improved looks, in fact, that he almost didn't hear some faceless Hufflepuff's exclamation of another Sirius Black sighting in Hogsmeade. Almost being the operative word. But, he put it out his mind, with all the damn Dementors crawling about the place, there was no way that Black was getting past the school gates.

He was proven so very wrong.

He spent his Halloween as he had the last two years; wondering how Potter was fairing and doing his damnedest to ignore the obnoxious people around him. He'd never quite forgotten the way Potter had described his terrible luck on Halloween. The way the boy attempted to make it sound as nothing more than a passing comment, but anyone  _besides_  the gormless redheaded hanger-on that he had been speaking to would be able to tell that it concerned him greatly.

He chanced a glance at the Gryffindor table, noticing the way Potter seemed to slowly draw into himself as the feast progressed. Somehow Samhain had gone from one of his favorite holidays, to one of his most hated.

He wasn't quite sure when.

By the time he had returned back to the Hufflepuff Common room, he wasn't in the best of moods, preoccupied with brooding over Samhain. Jona seemed to be high on a sugar rush and was jabbering at almost incomprehensible speeds about something that Cedric was certain he didn't care about.

When they were told that Sirius Black had attempted to break into the Gryffindor tower, Cedric was as concerned as his peers, assuming the worst. But, upon finding out that Potter had been unharmed he'd calmed down quite a bit and ended up just watching on with amusement as the other student's quaked with misguided fear.

As if Sirius Black would waste his time attacking a bunch of worthless Hufflepuffs.

Surprisingly, he concluded his night in a better mood than he had in a long while. Despite having to sleep on the hard, cold floor of the Great Hall face-to-face with a snoring Jona, he couldn't help the utter bliss that bubbled in the pit of his stomach as he drifted off to sleep.

He was technically sharing a room Potter, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit awkward and kind of on the shorter side, but the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match is coming up!


	13. Chapter 13

Thirteen:

Cedric's third private encounter with Colin Creevey was met with as much discomfort as the previous two. He had honestly been wondering if the overzealous boy would approach him again, and wasn't quite certain if he wanted him to or not. It was true that he could hardly stand the wretch, but at the same time he...

Well, he quite liked the photos he had received from their last meeting and was slightly hopeful to get a few more. So 'slightly' hopeful in fact, that he'd taken to carrying a few sickles on him everywhere he went just in case he privately happened upon Creevey as he quite vividly recalled the boy saying he would charge for the next batch of photos.

It made him feel rather guilty that he took so much pleasure from photos that Potter would most probably not appreciate being circulated, but he consoled himself with the concept that it was better that  _Cedric_ have them then some... some... unsavory  _pervert_  or something of the like.

Yes, they were far better with him. They belonged with him, really.

So, as he inevitably encountered Creevey yet again in some empty corridor, he did his best to set his mixed feelings aside.  _He was doing the right thing_.

"Hey there, Diggory!" had been the boy's excitable greeting from behind, nearly scaring Cedric out of his skin. The second year sounded as though they were just coincidentally crossing paths, rather that the likely actuality that Creevey had actively hunted Cedric down. "How've you been there, mate?"

"Don't call me mate, Creevey." he deadpanned, keeping his eyes straight forward.

His request was seemingly ignored if not entirely unheard. "You sure look like you've seen a few sleepless nights!" His voice took on a conspiratorial lilt and a rather distasteful grin crossed his face. "I bet  _I_ know what's been occupying your thoughts all alone in the dark."

"I don't know what you're implying, but stop." He still had yet to look at the little eyesore, continuing to walk to his destination as if the brat had never existed.

" _Suure~_ " snickered the boy. "Well, either way I'm not here to discuss your nightly routines. I just wanted to know if you gave that offer of mine any consideration?"

_Yes._

"No." Out the corner of his eye he could see Creevey's face fall and he had to fight down the impulse to cackle.

" _Really?_ " His excitable attitude returned far faster that Cedric would have preferred. "Well, I'll just have to remind you of it I s'pose."

Before Cedric could react, a photo was shoved right in front of his face, a hairsbreadth away from the tip of his nose. He opened his mouth to snap something scathing at the boy, but felt his voice die once his gaze focused on the image before him.

Potter sat on a mossy stone bench in one of the courtyards, speaking to someone outside of the frame, a soft smile on his countenance. He tilted his head, lifting a fragile hand to his face, attempting to cover the laughter that subtly pinked his cheeks. His eyes closed, black lashes fluttering as they opened again revealing an almost glowing green gaze filled with mirth. Marigolds and begonias bloomed in the planter behind him, framing the image in red and gold.

Want filled him, starting from the center of his chest and nearly choking him as it climbed his esophagus. So desperately he wanted to be that person just out of frame. To be able to make Potter smile and laugh so genuinely so truly. To have that green gaze affixed to him. It was more than a want. It was a need.

He had to have it.

"How much?"

Upon returning to his dorm, he immediately binned half of the pictures he had bought. After asking to see all of Creevey's work, it was revealed that Creevey was  _actually_  interested in photography and not just using it as a means to stalk Potter. To save face Cedric had bought a few of the boy's non-Potter-related pictures. It was a bit pricey buying so many pictures at once, but the look of surprise on Creevey's face when Cedric expressed false interest in his other pictures was worth a couple extra sickles.

Cedric reached under his pillow, pulling out his journal, drawing his four poster's curtains around him. He could feel his breathe begin to escape him in tepid puffs, increasing in frequency as he nearly hyperventilated. His heartbeat drummed a tattoo on the interior of his chest, he shakily began pasting each photo into the book, promising to dedicate a passage to each one.

After sticking the last one down, he stuck a hand through the drapes surrounding him, pulling open his bedside table and reaching blindly around the first drawer until finally grabbing his self inking pen. He turned back to his newest favorite picture.

It was of Potter (of course), standing in his Quidditch robes, broom clutched in his right hand as his eyes were turned skywards. A large grin decorated his face, and Cedric could practically feel the eagerness to fly that was rolling off the picture.

He lifted the quill.

_'The Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match is only in three days time! The Slytherins may think they've dodged a bullet by avoiding this ghastly weather, but I personally can't wait to face off against Potter!'_

He felt his gaze drag back to the photo as if guided by a magnetic force. He smiled.

-0v0-

The rain fell around them, pelting the top of Cedric's head almost painfully. The wind howled eerily and the field looked to be in greyscale with the little sunlight that had managed to creep through the thick, black clouds. He could hear his teammates moaning and groaning about the terrible weather and felt a bout of annoyance, he wouldn't have them ruining this moment for him. He turned around to address them.

"So perhaps these aren't the ideal conditions for a Quidditch match." He began, watching the way they jumped to attention at the sound of his voice. They had become more deferent of him as time had wore on. Hufflepuffs always respected authority of course, but Cedric had a sneaking suspicion that their obligatory regard for him as Quidditch Captain had morphed into more of an admiration after practicing alongside him for so long.

"But, we can't let that get the best of us." He motioned across the field towards the Gryffindor team. They looked majestic clad in their crimson and gold robes, standing rigidly despite the icy downpour. "We're not the only ones who have to play in this weather and we're not the only ones who've not had the chance to prepare for our opposition's techniques. If anything, we have the advantage. Gryffindor has seen very little change to their team in the past three years. Despite this they still stand tall. Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from them." He watched a few of his teammates bow their heads, looking somewhat cowed. "Now chin up, all of you."

He didn't bother continuing watching them to make sure they followed his orders, as he had complete faith they would. Instead he returned to squinting through the torrent of water, watching Potter with the best of his ability. Despite his impassioned speech, he was a bit disappointed at the weather. He had been fully aware that it was likely that it would be like this, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He'd been secretly hoping that Creevey would perhaps snap a couple of pictures of he and Potter in the air, but alas he would just have to enjoy the moment as it was. He held in a sigh.

The high shriek of Hooch's whistle rang across the field and Cedric could feel a wave of giddiness bubble in the pit of his stomach as he made his way to the center of the pitch. Wood stood before him, all of his usual manic energy absent. It seemed not even Oliver Wood and his infamous Quidditch obsession could keep a pleasant mood in this kind of weather.

Cedric forced a smile as he extended his right hand, if only it were Potter that was the Captain. Wood's grip was crushing, though Cedric was actually fairly certain the guy just didn't know his own strength, all the same he squeezed as hard as he was able feeling brief satisfaction as the Gryffindor winced.

He was fairly certain he saw Hooch mouth "Mount your brooms" and he pulled his right foot out of the mud with a loud squelch swinging it over his Flyabout. Hooch drew the whistle to her lips and gave a blast that sounded far too distant for her to only be less than a meter away and in a blink of an eye they were off.

He rose quickly and for once, was glad for his unusually heavy Seeker physique as he could see Potter swerving slightly in the heavy wind. He couldn't help but grin, it was a little endearing.

After only a few minutes of playing, Cedric was already quite frustrated with the rain. Everyone had been reduced to nothing more than red and yellow blurs as the rain only seemed to fall harder with each passing second. He had no idea how the rest of the game was going, and he had not a chance at hearing the commentary, Lee Jordan's voice sounding like a distant buzz.

Despite his impaired vision, he'd noticed a red blur that had been sticking fairly close to him. Though Cedric wasn't complaining that Potter was so near, he had to wonder why the boy would bother. Potter was notoriously fast at spotting and catching the snitch it made no sense that he was depending on the other seeker to spot it first. Especially considering that the harsh weather conditions could seriously hinder Potter's ability to out fly him.

In his focus he nearly didn't see the bludger barrelling towards him and had to turn upside down just to dodge it. He looked over and saw one of those redheaded menaces cackling at him. How could they still manage the energy to be playful in this weather?

He looked behind and caught the other twin smacking away the bludger he'd just dodged before it could hit their seeker. Potter looped under the other Gryffindor, catching up to Cedric after a jolt of speed.

Cedric frowned thoughtfully at this. Perhaps... it wasn't strategic at all? Perhaps the twins weren't the only ones who could be playful at times like this.

He grinned and sped off, making a sharp dive towards the ground. He could tell Potter was just a few feet behind and rapidly gaining on him. He then pulled up just as sharply as his dive, corkscrewing to keep balance (and perhaps to show off just a little). He glanced behind again and noticed Potter mirroring his actions with an enviable amount of grace and ease.

Cedric continued this banter-like flying, simply enjoying having the entirety of Potter's attention on himself. The poor weather was forgotten in his bliss and he didn't notice that Gryffindor had called a timeout until Wood had exaggeratedly motioned at Potter to return to the ground.

When Cedric had returned to his team their expressions were worryingly lost. He knew his inability to communicate with and direct them was most probably taking it's toll. Hopefully they weren't down too many points that his catching the snitch would be rendered obsolete.

It wasn't until his feet had landed on (somewhat) solid ground, that he noticed his fingers were cold to the point of aching. He noticed Jona jog up to them, holding a large umbrella and sent him a grateful smile.

"How are things?" he asked, turning towards his Keeper, who looked to be the most morose of the lot.

"Not great, Ced'. They're up by fifty points an' at this rate we're gonna end up playing into the night. I'm keeping out as many quaffles as I can, but Bell's and Spinnett's feints are a lot more effective with visibility bein' as poor as it is."

Cadwallader, his newest and most observant chaser stepped forward. "Their beaters seem mostly unaffected by the rain, they seem to be almost following dangerously close to the bludgers rather than tracking the other player's movements, so they've been nearly successful in knocking the majority of us off our brooms. We can barely keep up between them and their chasers."

Cedric sighed, but nodded all the same. He'd been having quite a bit of fun with Potter had been hoping to drag this game on as long as possible, but at this rate they were going to lose if he didn't do something.

"Alright, I'll turn all my efforts to catching the snitch, just focus on defense for now, we can't allow them to get up in anymore points or we'll be screwing our chances in future games."

"Yessir!" they chorused, turning back to the field.

Before he could follow he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back to see Jona grinning up at him.

"That was a darling speech there, Ced'. But, I gotta say you looked to be having the time of your life out there earlier. Who're you showing off for, eh?"

He felt a surge of whimsy at the very thought of flying with Potter and could nary stop himself from exclaiming."I can't help but fly like that when Potter's around!"

He jogged back to his team before Jona could reply and motioned them into the air.

Cedric noticed immediately upon heading back to the middle of the field that Potter was no longer following behind him and had to resist sighing at this; no doubt Potter too was redoubling his efforts in looking for the snitch. He searched high and low for the elusive golden ball, squinting through the rain and ducking as a bludger whizzed past his ear, spinning to avoid one of Gryffindor's chasers as they bobbed under him at the very last moment.

There was another clap of thunder followed by a blinding fork of lightning. He was fairly certain he heard a girl shriek behind him, whether or not if was one of his or Wood's remained to be seen. He had to hurry up and catch the snitch, this was getting increasingly dangerous.

Before that thought could even fade from his mind, he saw from the corner of his eyes, a tell tale glint of gold and immediately dove for it. After barely even beginning his descent he could feel a presence behind him that he knew without even looking back to be Potter.

He flattened himself even further to his Flyabout knowing that the boy was rapidly gaining on him and extended his arm towards the ball that was just out of reach. He felt something lightly bump against him and time felt like it had frozen just like everything else in this icy rain.

Potter was there, wind whipping his crimson robes around, black hair plastered to his cheeks that were almost red with exertion. His green eyes were trained forwards, so bright against the grey and black background. Cedric followed his gaze and-

With a jolt of panic remembered that he had a game to end. The snitch was centimeters away from the boy's hand and Cedric nearly flung himself forward in an effort to snatch it out of the air. He felt his fingers wrap around the slippery metal and grinned, pulling it to his chest. He felt his heart soar, elation making his entire body tingle. Now was the time. No better moment could possibly appear for him to speak to Potter. He turned his head and opened his mouth to finally address the person who had been plaguing his thoughts day and night.

And froze midair.

Potter was falling backwards, eyes dull and body limp. His tiny hand was loosely outstretched still reaching for the snitch that Cedric had already caught. Dementors swarmed around him like flies swarmed the dead. His eyes drew to a close, looking as if he were falling asleep rather than falling to his death. Cedric was certain he'd never seen anything so tragic before.

And with a startling shock he realized he was allowing it all to unfold. He surged forwards, reaching with all his might towards the scarlet figure that was streaking rapidly towards the ground. With a smack, he collided with one of the Gryffindor team members who had also been trying to catch the boy.

All he could do was watch Potter's continued descent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actions scenes and the like have never really been my forte, so I'm sorry if the Quidditch scene was a little hard to follow but, hey! It's finally finished guys, the Hufflepuff/Gryffindor match has come and pass. I'd like to warn you that things will be deviating even more from cannon now than they were before, so don't say I didn't warn you.
> 
> Marigold- Cruelty   
> Begonia- Beware (Dark unpleasant thoughts distracting you from happiness)
> 
> Thank you all for your continued support and feedback.


	14. Chapter 14

Fourteen:

Not even Potter's fall was enough to dampen Jona's mood as he bolted towards the Hufflepuff locker rooms. This was Hufflepuff's proudest moment in a long while. Their seeker, Jona's best friend, was the first person to beat Potter to the snitch. Sure, they'd won the Quidditch cup in former years, but everyone knew that they wouldn't have had a chance in Azkaban if Potter hadn't been indisposed during the pivotal games.

And not to mention how excited Cedric had been about playing against Potter, he would surely be proud.

He nearly slipped halfway down the stairs to the stands and ended up jumping over the last few steps in his rush. He ignored the torrential rain pounding over him, his umbrella furled at his side. He could feel the mud caking at the bottom of his trousers, his feet sinking into the swampy ground, but he paid it all no mind. He yanked open the heavy door to the men's locker room with ease, throwing his umbrella to the floor and tracking mud across the pale yellow tile. The team was around the door he'd just entered through, silent and stationary in their dripping robes. Jona frowned at them, but continued further into the room. Cedric was standing at a sink at the far end of the bathroom, dripping hair covering the majority of his face. Jona quickly approached, clapping a hand onto his friend's shoulder.

Cedric didn't move.

Tentatively, Jonathan spoke, realizing something was off. "Ced'?"

With that utterance the taller boy seemed to come to life, lifting his head to reveal dull eyes and a tired countenance. Turning to address his teammates he said, "You all ought to get changed, you'll catch your deaths if you all carry on in those soggy rags."

Jona watched the boy stare at nothing in particular, a distant look in his eye.

"Cedric, are you-"

"Fine." said Cedric curtly, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wand and cast what looked like a half-assed drying charm judging by the still slightly damp shoulder under Jona's hand.

"I've gotta go..." muttered Cedric distractedly, meandering towards the door that led to the path up to the castle.

"Cedric wai-" the door slammed before Jonathan could get his sentence out. He casted a glance at the other team member's ignoring their various states of undress. They stared back at him with pathetically lost looks on their face. He sighed. Hufflepuffs.

Summoning his umbrella he jogged out the door Cedric had just left through, nearly panting with exertion by the time he'd caught up with his friend, who was power walking towards the castle.

"Where..." a heavy breath. "Where are you going, mate?"

Cedric's grey eyes remained firmly forward, the umbrella clasped in his fist casting a dark shadow over his face. His mouth firmed into a harsh line as he withheld any sort of reply. Jona watched silently, doing his best to match Cedric's rapid pace despite his slightly shorter stature. They were back in the castle in record time and after following his friend down three stairwells, Jona finally put his foot down, grabbing Cedric by the wrist and using all his might to pull the stronger boy to a stop.

" _Cedric, what is going on?_ "

He flinched as the taller boy let out an almost animalistic hiss whirling around, eyes flashing mercury.

"What's going  _on_? Did you not see what just happened? Did you not  _see_ Harry nearly fall to his  _death_?"

Jona could only stand there in confusion and slight fear even after Cedric had whirled back around stomping off. He knew that Potter falling was quite a surprise but, he wasn't certain just  _why_  Cedric was so torn up about it, it's not like he knew the kid.

He continued, following his friend but with a bit more distance. "Where are you going?" he asked tentatively after a moment's time.

"The kitchens."

He blinked. "The kitchens? Why?"

"Treacle tart."

-0v0-

It was circumstances like these that truly tested your ability as a coach.

Oliver had only just left the Gryffindor locker rooms after a solid forty minutes of attempting to drown himself in the showers. With a sense of guilt he stepped into the Hospital Wing, he should've been at his injured teammate's side instead of wallowing in self pity over something no one had any real control over.

He knew that his other teammates and Potter's two sidekicks had left the hospital wing a few moments ago, having passed by them on his way up, so he was rather surprised to find not one, but two people at they boy's bedside.

Upon realizing who they were (well, one of them anyway, you can't actually expect him to recognize every Hufflepuff, can you?) he had to resist his immediate urge to order them to get as far away from his poor, slumbering Seeker as possible.

"Diggory." he instead politely greeted through gritted teeth while walking over to Harry's bedside, barely wrenching his eyes away from the boy's deathly pale countenance to fully look at the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain.

"I-" began Diggory shakily.

Oliver took in the younger teen's still damp clothes, messy hair and red-ringed eyes curiously. "You alright, mate?" he couldn't help but ask, despite being livid with the guy.

" _I'm fine!_ " Oliver winced at the way the guy's voice cracked. "I just- I came to- to- to bring th- this."

He looked down to see a generous slice of treacle tart clutched tightly in the Hufflepuff's trembling hands.

He blinked.

"Oh, er... That... Oh yeah! That's Harry's favorite! How'd you know?" His question didn't seem to register in the dull silver eyes that were trained on Harry's prone form. Oliver sent a worried glance in the other, nameless Hufflepuff's direction, but only received a concerned shrug in response.

He heard Diggory mutter something along the lines of, "Gon' leavis here..." and watched him place the plate with an unnecessary amount gentleness onto Harry's bedside table. He flinched when Diggory suddenly turned back around, his previously morose expression completely replaced with an unsettlingly manic sort of excitement.

"A rematch! We could have a rematch! A- and everything will be better and I'll get to play against  _Harry_  again!"

Despite the rather psychotic delivery, Oliver was greatly tempted to take Diggory up on his offer, but knew logically that there was simply no way Hooch would go for it, Hufflepuff had...  _technically_ won fair-and-square... he... supposed...

"No," he ground out, ignoring the distant screaming coming from somewhere in the back of his mind. "You won f- ...fair and square. Harry himself had said during timeout that he could hardly see with the rain pelting against his glasses. That's why he'd been sticking so close to you during the game. The likeliness of him spotting the snitch in that weather was slim to none."

It was alarming how quickly that crazed smile slid from Diggory's face at his words.

"His... glasses? I had thought he was following me 'cause... I had just thought that he was... I see..."

He stepped forwards when Diggory's shoulders started shaking. Just as he opened his mouth to inquire again if he was alright, Diggory was speaking again.

"I gotta go!" another voice crack. "Wood, I'm sorry about everything. Ca- can you make sure that Harry knows that? That I'm sorry?"

"Uh..., yeah?"

And within seconds both Hufflepuffs were gone, leaving Oliver alone with his still-unconscious Seeker.

-0v0-

"Cedric. Cedric.  _Cedric!_ "

" _What_ , Jona?" yelled his best friend, turning around to regard him with unhinged, silver eyes, striking Jona with a strange sense of unease. He wanted to do something, like pull Cedric into a hug and tell him everything was fine, but honestly, he still wasn't exactly sure what the problem was in the first place.

"Where are we going?" he only just noticed he was panting, they'd been running almost nonstop since leaving the Hospital Wing, so he supposed it would make sense considering they were all the way on the other side of the castle.

"I- I don't know!" Cedic breathed out in the most pitiful voice Jona had ever heard from an almost grown man.

"Well, why don't we er..." he glanced around the nearly empty corridor, catching sight of a single door standing across from a ghastly painting of man attempting to teach some trolls ballet. "Why don't we just pop in here until you figure it out then, aye?"

He ushered the taller boy inside, taking in the two cushy armchairs and the crackling fireplace occupying the mostly empty room.

"Never knew a room like this existed..." he commented absently as he manhandled Cedric into the leftmost seat, a task he certainly would not have been able to do if Cedric were present of mind. He sat down across from him, their knees nearly touching as they both stared at the floor for a long, pregnant pause.

Jona contemplated in this heavy silence, how far his friendship with Cedric had come, or perhaps how far it had gone, he wasn't sure. As terrible as it sounded Jonathan had always known his best friend to be a dull, dispassionate, uninspired individual. There was always a unique calm to Cedric that had consistently made Jona feel like even the most unbearable situations were trivial, as if things would go fine, no matter what. But, looking at him now, Jona could find none of that unbreakable calm that had made Cedric who he was.

Cedric sat before him, skin pale and clammy, red-ringed eyes weighed down by dark bags, darting this way and that in a haphazard manner. His broad shoulders shook minutely.

He withheld a sigh at the disconcerting sight. "What happened, Cedric?"

He flinched at the dry sob that followed his question. Cedric rocked forwards, burying his face in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees.

Jona continued when he received no reply. "This isn't about the game, right? This has been building for awhile, hasn't it?"

He had an accusation of sorts at the tip of his tongue, but he dreaded the thought of verbalizing it. Instead he watched the teen in front of him rock back and forth curling further and further in on himself as seconds passed.

He gritted his teeth and said it.

"Is this about Potter?"

The head of chestnut colored hair immediately snapped up, revealing eyes that glinted wildly in the fire light, shadows flickering across his face and painting a sinister picture. Cedric lifted a hand to his mouth, gnawing at already bruised and bitten fingertips.

"What am I gonna  _do_ , Jona? H- h- how am I gonna fix this? Everything was supposed to lead up to that game- and I-" he broke off, turning to look around the room as if the solution to all of his problems would just appear before his face out of thin air. He stood, pacing in circles in front of the fireplace. Jona remained in his seat, watching with weary eyes as Cedric continued talking.

"All I wanted was for him to- to- to  _look at me_ , y'know? It's-" He inhaled a ragged breath, fisting his damp hair. "It's all I've been working towards and I've- I've  _ruined_ it! He'll  _hate_  me! He'll call me a cheat! Say that I- I left him to  _die_!"

"Potter knows better than that." Jona consoled before he was swiftly interrupted.

"Potter doesn't  _know_  I even exist! I'm nobody to someone like him! Dirt under his shoes! A background character! Why can't I just  _matter_ , Jona? I just wanna fucking  _matter_!"

"You do!" Jona shouted back, his alarm at the whole situation rising to a crescendo. "Don't ever say otherwise, Ced! You matter to  _me_!" He reached for a shoulder, halting the taller boy in his frantic pacing. "Look, I don't know what...  _this_  is, but Potter seems like a nice bloke. I'm sure he'd accept an apology from you, Ced and then you can just move forwards from there."

"He is nice." Cedric agreed, nodding so rapidly it would be comical if it weren't for the current situation. "He's great..." his eyes went distant for a moment, before he suddenly refocused, gaze snapping back to Jona's face. "D'you really think he'll forgive me?"

Jona swallowed back the bile that had steadily been rising up the back of his throat throughout the conversation and forced a shaky smile.

"Honestly? I think he'll agree with me that there's nothing  _to_ forgive."

As he watched his best and only friend's face crumple in relief he didn't know if he should more worried about Cedric or Potter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's a bit pitiful, hmm?


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is brief mention of self-harm towards the beginning of this chapter. Nothing too major or explicit, but be warned.

Fifteen:

Cedric had been thinking alot lately. This was nothing new, of course, ever since he'd pledged to become more studious, thinking had become an integral part of his schedule. Even before that, Cedric has always been a very contemplative individual, even if he hadn't been spending his time contemplating anything useful.

But, right now, as he stared intensely at the dark curtains surrounding his four poster, Cedric was thinking about something  _important_.

Naturally, he was thinking about Harry. More specifically, how to prove to Harry that he was genuinely sorry for the out come of their previous Quidditch match.

Apologies and forgiveness were both rather foreign subjects to Cedric. He'd never really had to apologize to someone outside of his family (and it's not like  _they_ counted anyway) about anything important, nor had he ever received one.

He thought back to when his parents had grovelled for his forgiveness after he'd found out they had been going through his mail without his permission. He immediately had to stop those thoughts, however when he felt a familiar bubble of elation rise from the base of his stomach when recalling their pathetic, pleading faces. Now was not the time for happy thoughts like that, he was supposed to be punishing himself.

Back on the subject of his apology, he thought that he ought to do something relevant to the situation at hand. He didn't think it would be very sincere to just buy Potter a cake or something equally frivolous and just write an apology note. He needed to prove that things would change moving forwards, after all. But he wasn't sure how to prove that for a  _dementor attack_ , of all things.

He rolled over, coming face-to-face with the hilt of his wand that was sticking out from underneath his pillow.

Maybe he could learn the Patronus Charm?  
He sat up as this idea occurred to him, mind rushing with the possibilities. If he mastered something as complicated as a Corporeal Patronus he would be the talk of the whole school, and surely, it would look very good on his Defense OWLs Not to mention if he got to use it to protect Harry surely Harry would-

He heaved a tepid breathe as some unnamed emotion overcame him, covering his mouth with the palm of his hand.

 _He_  could be  _Harry's_ hero.

His voice cracked into a slight whine as he released another heavy breath, muffling his voice with his hand.

He pushed aside the curtains and hopped off the bed, teetering a bit dizzily in his excitement.

It took him a slight bit longer than usual to get to the library from the Hufflepuff Common room than it normally would've, as he managed to wander down the wrong corridor on three separate occasions in his eagerness to create the perfect apology. However, he did eventually get there and luckily for him it was still practically empty, no doubt due to the fact that many people were still asleep after all the excitement from the Quidditch match the day previous.

He shuddered at the thought, the image of Harry's luminous green eyes drawing to a close as he fell from hundreds of feet from above ground flashing through his mind.

He looked down, feeling a sharp pain radiating from his right palm. With a hiss he unfurled his fist, realizing his nails had bitten through his skin. He considered healing it, but decided against it; it was only fair really, Harry had certainly gone through worse pain due to Cedric's inability to save him from his fall.

Tearing himself away from the downwards spiral that was his thoughts, he approached one of the index books that were sitting on the podiums that were interspersed throughout the library in attempt to find some good reference material on casting the Patronus Charm.

It took quite a bit longer than he expected to find some in-depth works on the subject, as it turns out, many of the books pertaining to defense against dark creatures had already been checked out. Probably thanks to the fact that the main purpose of said-charm was residing on their campus.

He did eventually manage to unearth a rather esoteric series by a man named David Farion about defense against dark creatures.

It had taken him about three days to translate the scholarly gibberish into something even remotely decipherable enough for him to finally attempt the charm. He found the nature of the spell to be quite interesting, once he finally figured out what the Hell Farion was talking about. Despite the fact that the Patronus was intended to defend against dark creatures the spell itself was emotion-based, which technically made it dark in nature, no matter that the emotions had to be 'pure' or whatever.

That was something that had given him pause during his research. Purity, that is. He didn't really understand how a positive emotion could be impure. Although, he supposed even evil people could be happy sometimes too, so maybe their happiness was impure? But, surely even evil people were capable of some sort of purity... Or not? He found it all very vague and confusing.

There wasn't really any sort of place in the castle that mirrored the conditions one would expect when facing a dementor (and thank Merlin for that), but the cold, dank and gloomy abandoned classrooms in the dungeons were about as close as he could get without actually flagging down one of the Azkaban guards himself.

His first few attempts had been unsuccessful, but Farion had said that it was likely to take awhile. However, after hours of trying and not even yielding the tiniest spark he began to get a bit disheartened. After four days in a row of practice he was just plain angry.

He stood, chest heaving and throat sore for the fourth night in a row of screaming 'Expecto Patronum' at the top of his lungs with no result. He couldn't for the life of him figure out what he was doing wrong!

He was following the book's instructions to a T and yet abso-fucking-lutely nothing was happening!

He stomped his feet and screeched, not caring if he looked like a petulant child. It's not like there was anyone there to see him an-

"Mr. Diggory? Are you quite alright?"

He looked up to see Professor Lupin leaning against the open doorway inspecting him with tired, but sharp eyes.

"Pr- Professor Lupin!" he exclaimed, feeling the tell-tale heat of embarrassment crawling up his face at the thought that someone had bore witness to his childish display. "I had thought you were on sick leave!" Which had been a pain-in-the-ass Cedric added mentally, Snape may have been a competent enough teacher, but that didn't mean he wasn't a complete wanker as well.

"I was." amended the man, stepping further into the dusty classroom. "I'll be back to work tomorrow morning, however."

Cedric was tempted to tell the bloke he should consider against it, the man looked dead on his feet, but, the prospect of having another DADA class with Snape kept him mum.

Lupin continued. "But, I was heading down here to return this goblet to Severus and I couldn't help but overhear your... er..."  
"Yeah..." Cedric was fairly certain his face would catch aflame at any moment. "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to apologize for." smiled Lupin patiently. "We all have our moments. But, if I may ask, what was the source of your frustration? You're usually so calm in class."

Cedric sighed and kneeled down, picking up his wand that he'd apparently dropped at one point or another. Closing his eyes, he focused, trying to envision his memory of choice with as much clarity as possible. When he finally intoned "Expecto Patronum" not even a wisp of mist escaped his wand. Nothing new there.

He turned to look back at his Professor who was watching him curiously.

"I've been at this for hours at end for four days in a row and yet, I've not managed a thing. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm following the book's instructions perfectly."

The man cocked his head, frowning thoughtfully as he stepped a bit closer. "Such is the nature of books on occasion." he said cryptically. "Authors can be as finicky as wands can't they? Perhaps your instructions were just ill-suited for you personally, hmm?"

Cedric wasn't sure how to respond to that, but he got the feeling Lupin was going to provide some sort of solution, so he waited silently.

"What memory are you using, then?" questioned his Professor offhandedly as he walked towards the stack of books Cedric had been using, inspecting the titles thoughtfully.

"Well the book said-" he paused when Lupin cut him off with an unimpressed, "Mmn." but continued when he said nothing else.

"It said that I should use, er, pure memories pertaining to my family." another, slightly sharper "Mmn."

"...and that memories from my early years work best."

"I see." intoned the man disdainfully. "Well, I can certainly see where the issue lies. I imagine memories pertaining to you family are most probably not as happy as Mr.-" he flipped one of the books over, inspecting the spine. " _Farion_  would presume, hmm?"

Oh, so Lupin was still under the impression that Cedric parents abused him? Just as well, he was probably at least partially right about how Cedric perceived memories relating to his family.

"Yeah."

The man nodded, dropping the book rather unceremoniously back onto the table, his disgust with it quite apparent.

"No, Mr. Diggory, you need something more substantial than lukewarm memories of you and your parents. You said earlier you should use 'pure' memories. What do you think that pure means in this context?"

"Er... innocent, maybe?"

"Not quite, but I can see where you would get that idea." A scathing glare was directed towards David Farion's collected works. "No, rather it is about the purity of the emotion of itself. It must be untainted by other negative feelings. For example a common memory that people use when first attempting the Patronus is their first time flying. However, what they don't take into account is all the other emotions they feel aside from happiness during that time, such as nervousness or fear."

He shook his head, his eyes a bit distant, looking faintly amused. "No, those memories filled with the sharp adrenaline packed sort of happiness are lovely, but pale in comparison to moments spent in the presence of those truly important to you." He looked back at Cedric, eyes warm with something Cedric knew had nothing to do with himself.

"Do you understand, Mr. Diggory?"

"Yes, sir. I think so." He wasn't certain if he was lying or not.

Lupin decided for him. "No, you don't quite yet. It is a very complex feeling that many do not encounter until adulthood if at all. But, I have faith you will. Take a break from the casting itself you've got the technical aspects down perfectly. Instead I'd like you to think a bit more on what truly matters to you. Can you do that for me? There's a lad."

There was a strangely mischievous grin on Lupin's face that Cedric found suited him far more than he would've expected. The man grabbed the stack of books, balancing the goblet atop them before heading towards the door, ignoring Cedric's inquiring gaze.

"If Irma asks about these direct her towards me."

"Er, okay sir."

Cedric concluded that evening that it may take a bit longer than he had originally anticipated to learn the Patronus Charm as it apparently required some soul-searching that he was not certain he was ready for.

With that thought in mind, he approached Jona the next evening in hopes that the other boy would be willing to help Cedric come up with another way to prove to Harry that he was genuinely apologetic for the outcome of the Quidditch Match.

That was not to say that he was giving up on learning the Patronus Charm, however, but Cedric only had so much time to apologize before it came across as insincere.

Jona was surprisingly helpful.

"Well, if you don't want to send him a note or something, why don't you stay over winter break and tell him then? I heard he never goes home for the Hols and you'll be sure to see him at Christmas Breakfast at the very least. Maybe you could get him something as an... apology gift or whatever you wanna call it."

After that conversation, Cedric immediately sent his parents a missive, begging to be allowed to stay at Hogwarts over Yule break to focus on studying for his upcoming OWLs

When his parents replied with a long, meandering note that was basically one big, drawn out 'no', he tore the thing to shreds and decided he just wouldn't get on the Hogwarts Express that December and there was nothing his parents could do about it.

He then spent his next Hogsmeade visit dragging an exasperated Jona up and down the village, looking for the perfect 'apology gift'. Which ended up being a gift certificate to Quality Quidditch Supplies. He'd been tempted to get something a bit more personal, but knew logically that it would probably come across as a bit strange that he knew so much about Harry's personal life without ever having technically met him.

He also picked up a pair of cufflinks and a matching necklace for his mother and father, hoping that a nice enough Christmas present might soften the blow when they inevitably lose their minds over him not boarding the train home.

The rest of November went by agonizingly slowly, but the break eventually came and Cedric found himself standing beside Jona as the other boy waved to his brother on the Hogwarts Express, the Train rapidly picking up speed as it exited the platform, leaving them behind.

"I'm surprised you decided to stay as well." commented Cedric as they trudged their way back up to the castle, their feet catching a bit with each step through the slushy snow.

It took a moment for Jona to formulate a reply, the shorter boy craning his neck to look up at the grey sky above them. "It's been a rough year for you, Ced'. I didn't want you to have to spend the last of it alone, y'know?"

Cedric supposed it was rather silly to be surprised. That was the obvious answer, but he still found himself shocked.

"Thank you!" he exclaimed, hoping Jona understood how touched he was at this revelation. "You're a great friend, Jona."

He didn't receive a reply to that.

Cedric had presumed that once his parents realized he was not, in fact, returning home with or without their permission, they would most likely send a whiney letter (perhaps a howler) expressing their disappointment. What he did  _not_ expect was for them to show up at his school.

But, they did.

Which is why he was currently standing in the middle of the teacher's lounge surrounded by his professors who were staring at him in disapproval as well as two very angry Diggorys.

His father had huffed and puffed, no doubt releasing some of the hot air that he kept in the space between his ears where his brain was intended to go. Cedric paid him little mind, used to his father's pointless tirades. Instead, he waited for his mother to speak after his Dad's lengthy, repetitive rant about how Christmas was a time for family or some other bull finally drew to a close.

His mother (that fucking snake  _bitch_ ) seemed to be able to tell that while there was no convincing Cedric, his professors were another story entirely.

"Oh Cedric," she had wailed teary-eyed (Cedric wondered briefly if there was some sort of spell that she was using to get that effect) hands clutched over the pearls laced around her neck. "Please just come home! Your grandparents will be joining us this Holiday and were  _so_  excited to see you! Surely you don't want to disappoint them? After all, your grandfather Eldritch probably is so up in the years, I can't imagine there will be much more time for you to spend with him."

Merlin, the woman was laying it on thick.

"I need to focus on my studies, Mum. I don't have time for... festivities. I've been very busy with the added stress of being both a Quidditch Captain and a Prefect. I've had so little time to prepare fo my OWLs, I need to use the time this break provides wisely." As soon as the words came out of his mouth he regretted it, catching the calculative glint in his mother's eyes at the word 'stress'.

"Oh, I just knew it!" she exclaimed, dramatically throwing her hands up. "Quidditch Captain _and_ Prefect? It's all this stress, addling your mind!" she turned to address the present staff members with an imploring expression. "While my Cedric is very capable, you all  _must_ see that this is too much for him? He needs a proper break! Stress can kill if left unchecked, did you know? Please, just let us take him home, he needs time to relax."

He snarled, opening his mouth to say something he would probably regret uttering in front of all of his teachers, but Sprout beat him to the punch, thankfully.

"Perhaps they're right, Mr. Diggory." she glanced about at her colleagues who were nodding along. "Your grades have been perfect throughout this past year, I doubt you've anything to worry about. Why not just enjoy your break, hum?"

Cedric felt his shoulders sag as he realized all of his plans were souring right before his eyes all because of his stupid, useless,  _fucking_ -

"Pomona." While it had been professor Sprout's name that Lupin called out, his brown eyes were firmly trained on Cedric's face, countenance stony. "If I could speak to you in private for a moment?"

When they disappeared through the door to the hall he suddenly discerned exactly what it was Lupin wanted to talk about.

He couldn't help but send his Mum a triumphant little smirk and had to bite his tongue to stop himself from cackling at her confused expression.

When they returned both of his professors faces were cold and unforgiving when their eyes landed on his parents.

"He'll be staying." intoned Sprout in a voice Cedric had never heard from the perpetually jolly herbology professor.

His father immediately began to bellow at the outrage of it all, glaring at the woman with a betrayed expression. His mother, however had always been the only one with any sort of sense out of the two. Her silver eyes darted rapidly between Cedric and Lupin, realization dawning on her pretty features. A painfully defeated look crossed her face as she closed her eyes.

Cedric would hardly draw his eyes away from the  _wonderful,_ pathetic sight his mother made. He wished he had a camera so he could look back on this moment with as much clarity as possible. He was so enraptured that he did not notice the two dark eyes from across the room, taking his hidden glee in consideringly.

His parents were eventually ordered off the campus and Cedric returned to the Hufflepuff Common room with a skip in his step.

This was gonna be a good Christmas.


	16. Chapter 16

Sixteen:

Cedric saw very little of Harry the first half of the break, which was no surprise, the castle was so frigidly cold that it was unlikely that any number of the remaining students were willing to venture out of their dorms for more than a few minutes at a time. Despite this, he still found himself enjoying his time with Jona, lazing about the Hufflepuff commons, playing board games and talking over mugs of hot chocolate.

It was one morning two days before Christmas that they decided to brave the freezing halls of Hogwarts in search of entertainment. They were hopping down the transfiguration corridor like a pair of idiots, wrapped up in Hufflepuff themed throw blankets and practically glowing with the amount of warming charms they'd cast on themselves.

So, of course this would be the first time they encountered another person for practically the entire break.

And  _of course_ it was Snape.

"Pr- Professor!" stuttered Jona, nearly tripping over his blanket in his haste to back away from the perpetually black-clad man.

His fear was unfounded as Snape sent them no more than a fleeting, disdainful sneer before brushing past them quite rudely.

However after continuing on their journey, (this time walking, not hopping) Cedric was possessed with the sudden urge to look back over his shoulder, only to find the Potions Professor stock-still blatantly staring after him with unreadable, black eyes. Suppressing a shudder, Cedric did his best to put it out of his mind. He had more important things to worry about.

On Christmas Eve Cedric had carefully folded the gift certificate into a navy-colored envelope, knowing Harry favored dark, muted colors and blues. He'd pondered sending it by owl, but decided against it, fearful Harry might misinterpret it as a Christmas present. Not that he would be opposed to sending Harry a Christmas present if it weren't for how... strange it would seem.

Cedric was supposed to barely know him after all.

The next morning he sent his rather unremarkable barn owl, Blathers, off to his parents with their gifts in tow. He scoffed at their pettiness when he received nothing in return, though his grandmother did send him the same present she sent every year, a personalized set of stationary and quills.

In his excitement to see Harry he had woken up at the ungodly hour of four in the morning, unable to return to sleep, so he spent the next five hours milling restlessly about the common room until it was finally an acceptable time to wake Jona up.

Jona had been rather displeased at being awoken and Cedric had no doubt that he would've slept the entire day away if he'd been left to his own devices. But, Cedric eventually managed to rouse him into an at least semi-lucid state at which point they exchanged gifts. Cedric received a broom servicing kit, and Jona the collected works of [some sort of 50 shades-esq novelist].

After that they sat in silence. Cedric suspected that Jona was feeling some of the anticipation that he was for the upcoming event.

At around ten until ten they stood from their cushy seats in the common room and made their way up to the Great Hall, the envelope in his pocket feeling heavier than any slip of paper should. When they arrived, only a few of the Professors had taken their seats. They stood just inside the doors and slightly off to the right, their eyes trained upon the entrance as they waited for Harry to arrive.

The doors opened and Cedric could compare the moment to a breath of fresh air after ages of suffocation. Harry was like water, like blood a  _necessity_ , life itself. He could feel the room tilt just slightly as he walked past, so close that Cedric could  _smell_  him.

Cedric was so consumed in taking in the soft curls of Harry's inky black hair and how the bite of the cold corridors had tinted his porcelain cheeks pink that he didn't even notice Jona shepherding him into a seat directly across from the object of his attentions until his bottom finally met with the hard, wooden bench.

He looked down and then up again, finding himself sitting between Jona and  _Snape_ of all people. Harry was situated across from him with some faceless Weasley boy adjacent to him. He blinked, opening and then closing his mouth. Harry wasn't even looking at him, though, wrapped up in whatever mindless drivel Weasley was spewing. So, instead of speaking or doing anything really, Cedric just sort of sat there staring resolutely at the table, listening with rapt attention to the soft, sweet tones of Harry's voice.

After awhile he heard a 'clack' coming from directly below his chin and looked down to see his previously empty plate full of food, Jona's hand clasped to the edge of said-plate.

He glanced over towards Jona, only to find brown eyes staring back, and unreadable expression plastered to his face.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Jona's voice came out clear, stilted and strange.

Looking around the rest of the table, Cedric realized everyone else had begun eating, some of their plates already half-empty.

He nodded slowly, noticing after a few moments that he had yet to answer his friend's question. He scooped up a spoonful of mashed potatoes, lifting it to his open mouth, but before it could breach his lips he heard Harry laughing at something Weasley said and all other thought went out the window, his eyes tracing up to stare, entranced at Harry's flushed, joyful, visage.

" _Cedric._ " came sharply from his left. His spoon fell from his hand, spilling potatoes across his plate. His still-empty mouth finally snapped closed.

Jona smiled tightly up at him, eyes attempting to communicate something that Cedric simply was not lucid enough to comprehend. Jona seemed to be able to tell this and sagged in his seat, sighing, before composing himself tight smile returned and he cocked his head to the side.

"Christmas cracker?" he offered, extending the roll of shining, festive paper towards him. Cedric blinked, but raised a hand, pulling on one end as Jona pulled on the other. He was far more startled by the 'Pop' than he should have been, but it seemed to have some sort of sobering effect over him.

He finally realized that he's been sitting there, still as a board, listening Harry's voice for upwards of 40 minutes. He focused back on Jona, who was watching him with a knowing frown.

"Any preferences?" said the boy with a raise of his eyebrow. In his left hand was a candy cane striped, rope-like scarf in the other was a little, golden crown. Cedric reached for the scarf, smiling crookedly as Jona settled the crown upon his head.

"Well-suited, wouldn't you say?" grinned Jona, his voice sounding eerily similar to Draco Malfoy's haughty drawl.

That startled a laugh out of the Weasley boy from across the table, but when the two Hufflepuffs turned to look at him, the boy had already schooled his expression he tended to favor.

"Ron." Harry chided gently, drawing Cedric's gaze back to him, like a moth to a flame. His blood boiled when all the Weasley boy (Ron, apparently) did was roll his eyes and launch into some other inane topic. Harry deserved better

When their conversation finally reached a lull (or rather, when Weasley became too preoccupied with stuffing his face with pudding to speak) Cedric decided that it was then or never and reached into the pocket of his robes, pulling out the envelope.

"H- um... Potter?" he wanted to choke himself. He sounded like a fucking mouse.

He did his best not to lose himself when Harry, who had been enjoying his slice of treacle tart, traced his bright green eyes up to meet him, blinking so innocently, mouth pursed curiously, Cedric just wanted to-

"I wanted to apologize to you... in person. Cause, I mean, I know I told Wood to, but er..." He shook his head. He was so bloody pathetic.

Heaving a sigh, he extended a hand across the table, holding out the envelope. As Harry's small, pale hand reached out, Cedric could feel his heart beat against his chest, lungs shuttering as his breaths came out uneasily. He willed with every fiber of his being for their fingers to touch. He internally prayed to whatever deity was listening to know what it would feel like to be  _touched_  by Harry.

But, one large, freckled hand snapped out, as quick as a rodent, snatching the envelope straight from Cedric's off-guard fingers before Harry could even reach it.

Cedric was on his feet before he could process it, staring down at the red-head who was glaring defiantly back at him.

"As if!" snapped the boy, baring his teeth, also climbing to his feet. "You think I'm gonna sit by and watch you place some hex on my best mate? I know who you are, you bloody git!"

Harry was back to chiding him, laying a hand on the arm of the boy's hideous, maroon sweater. How was it fair? How was any of it fair? That some stupid, poor, waste-of-space,  _Weasley_  was allowed to feel Harry's hands on him with nary a care, but Cedric couldn't even- couldn't even-  _after all he's done-_

"Ron, what're you on about now? Why're you being so rude to him?"

The redhead had the audacity to act exasperated, sighing dramatically as he slung a long arm over Harry's shoulder.

Cedric wanted to scream.

"Merlin, Harry. What's it like then? Swimming around in that oblivious little bubble of your's, eh? That's the Hufflepuff  _cheat_. Y'know the one."

Harry just shook his head. " _No_ , I  _don't know_  I swear it's like you talk in tongues sometimes, Ron."

He turned to address Cedric, expression apologetic. "I'm sorry, I really do have the poorest memory. Who are you?"

Cedric froze, blood pumping deafeningly in his ears. He wrenched his gaze away from Harry's beautiful, lovely, perfect face and looked down at the envelope where Weasley had discarded it on the floor.

'The Hufflepuff cheat?' He couldn't help but think. 'Is that what they're calling me?'

_"Who are you?"_

He felt a hand just under his elbow and looked up to see Jona staring worriedly up at him.

He realized in a jarring suddenness that he'd been holding his breath and gasped, filling his lungs, that had been screaming for air.

"Are- are you alright?" Harry was speaking to him so sweetly, concerned gaze glittering behind his glasses.

"I-" Cedric heard himself stuttering. "I'm not a- a chea-" his voice caught in his throat. He was still standing. He stumbled backwards over the bench and lifted a hand to his mouth.

Everyone was staring at him. The whole table. Everyone. Harry.

"I look like a-" he swallowed, and felt something roiling restlessly in his stomach. "I'm sorry. I gotta go. Don' feel so well."

He was out of the room within the next breath.

As soon as he was out of the Great Hall, he ran, frantically, aimlessly. He ran until he felt like he couldn't anymore, knees aching from the shock of the unforgiving flagstone against his feet.

His head spun, he couldn't think straight, all he could hear was Harry's voice asking that same damned question over and over, making his ears ring and his head pound.

A door materialized on the wall out of thin air and he found himself slipping in.

-0v0-

In the blink of an eye he was awake again. He grimaced as he felt his own drool sliding down the cheek he'd been sleeping on, wiping it on his rumpled sleeve. As he sat up, he felt the surface he was laying on shift underneath him. He realized as he blinked groggily, that he was laying upon a pile of soft, garishly-colored pillows a few were atop him, as if he were emerging from a plush, fabric ant-mound.

Taking in the room he found that he had no clue where the Hell he was. Based on the light filtering through the frosted windows it looked to still be daytime, however. As he wriggled his way out of his prison of pillows, his foot finally met the floor, a cloud of feathers sprung up from around his feet, floating slowly back down to the ground.

He noticed that many of the pillows had been ripped, some hardly even resembling anything more then tatters. He wondered why anyone would do such a thing. Shrugging, he made his was towards the door, ignoring the downy feathers underfoot.

Upon reaching the hallway he immediately recognized that he was in the 5th floor corridor and with a sigh, he made his way back to his common room. Moving as fast as he could without outright sprinting as he attempted to escape the frigidly cold corridors.

Upon arriving to his destination he found Jona curled up on one of the couches, a pot of tea and a plate full of what looked like cake crumbs sitting on the coffee table in front of him. A book sat in his lap, but it was closed.

As Cedric rounded the couch, he saw that the boy was fast asleep. However, his shadow casted over Jona and the shorter boy slowly blinked awake. As his eyes opened Cedric could make out the dark circles underneath them.

Jona groaned.

"Long night?" Questioned Cedric, faintly amused. He flinched back when he received a rather stormy glare.

"Are you a fucking idiot?" was Jona's growled reply. Cedric blinked rapidly, opening his mouth to respond in affront, only to be hastily cut off.

"After that scene you just fucking disappear for a whole day and a half and then just come back like everything is all hunky dory?" He stood, pushing Cedric back, nearly causing him to trip over the coffee table.

"Do you know what I  _thought_? When no one, not even the headmaster could find you for a whole fucking  _day_?"

Cedric said nothing, presuming the question was rhetorical. It wasn't.

"I SAID, DO YOU KNOW WHAT I THOUGHT, CEDRIC?"

"N- no."

Jona chuckled, shaking his head, expression sour and mirthless. "I had thought you jumped into the Black Lake and drowned yourself, you stupid fucking git."

Cedric blinked, cocking his head, confusion overriding his sense, he was surely missing something.

"Why... I don't understand. Why would I do something like that?"

Jona froze at this, eyes firmly affixed to Cedric's lost expression. He advanced slowly, as if approaching a wounded animal.

"Cedric, where were you?"

"Er... I..." Cedric didn't really know. "Some room? Round the fifth floor, with a bunch of pillows and feathers. I'd been asleep there. I didn't realize I'd been gone for so long, though."

Jona grabbed him and Cedric allowed his friend to lead him over to the couch, getting the feeling that they were in for an important discussion by the look on Jona's face.

"What do you remember of Christmas breakfast?"

Cedric chuckled. "Jona, Yule's not for another two days, unless you're referring to last year."

Jona's face remained blank, even as Cedric waited for the boy to burst into laughter and apologize for his half-assed prank.

He didn't and instead heaved a long sigh, casting a glance out the window, it was late afternoon.

"You sat between Snape and I."

Cedric out right laughed at this. "Oh, pull the other one! Now I  _know_  you're having me on. As if  _Snape_  would be willing to spend Yule with other sentient beings!"

Jona rolled his eyes, his face still eerily expressionless, jaw tightening minutely. "I had to make a plate for you." he continued as if Cedric had never spoke. "Not that it mattered, you didn't eat one bit of it." his words came out bitter and resentful, almost hurt.

"We sat across from Potter and the youngest Weasley boy."

Cedric could hear something. Faint and ringing, like when the wireless went on the fritz. Someone was saying something in the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite make it out through all the static.

"You're wrong." he heard himself saying. There was the sound of fabric ripping from somewhere. When he looked up, however, he could find nothing that could have been the cause for such a noise.

Something was tickling his nose. He sneezed.

Jona reached out, fingertips brushing against Cedric's wrinkled shirt. He felt a tug at something round his neck, but refused to look down. Jona's gaze seemingly holding him hostage.

"What's this then?" Jona held up a thick, candy cane striped scarf and Cedric's vision blurred.

" _That's the Hufflepuff cheat! Y'know the one!"_

" _Sorry, who're you?"_

_He could feel the bunched of feathers in his fists, watching the way the caught the midday light through the frosted glass._

His throat was burning, he realized. As if he'd been screaming not long ago.

Jona stared at him unforgivingly, his mouth a thin, grim line. "I thought you'd hurt yourself... I'd thought the worst."

They sat in a long, cold silence, despite the fire crackling merrily only a few feet away from them.

"He wanted you to know he forgives you." Jona spat after a very long time. "Said he'd never blamed you to begin with."

Snowdrifts began to fall outside, beating gently against the window pane, melting as they met with the warmed glass.

"He didn't even know who I was." Cedric's voice was weak, defeated and pained. "And now he does." he said after a pause. "And now I'm the Hufflepuff cheat to him. The git who tried to give him a hexed letter. The  _creep_  who can't even speak to him without stuttering."

Jona didn't bother to pay his lament any attention.

"Why Potter, anyway? You've never been the type to care about fame or popularity. You've never been the type to care about  _anything_ , so why Potter?"

Cedric couldn't understand it. The answer seemed so obvious, so simple. Thoughts of Harry came more easily than breathing. Harry was a part of him at this point. Cedric often found himself asking why he was the only one who seemed to feel this way.

"Don't you?" he didn't exactly know what he wanted Jona's answer to be.

"Don't I what?"

"Don't you wan't Potter to notice you? ...Doesn't everyone?"

"No. I don't." Cedric believed him, but just couldn't understand. "And while think there are plenty of people who  _do_ , I don't think they are they majority and I don't think  _any_  of them want it quite as much as you do."

Cedric agreed. No one wanted Harry as much as he did. He felt proud. He felt disgusted.

"And what would happen after?" Jona had laid down at this point, settling his head against one of the armrests, eyes affixed to the fire.

"After what?"

"After he 'notices' you in the way you've been wanting him to. What do you want from him beyond that?"

Cedric didn't know. Now that Jona had pointed it out would Cedric really be okay with just leaving it after all the time and effort he'd put into his... 'pining'? He didn't know what he wanted but...

He could still remember Harry's scent. So sweet, clean, fresh and cloying. Cedric would envision those sooty lashes, fluttering against warm cheeks, could see his soft lips open and inviting. He wondered what Harry's breath would feel like against his face. What it would smell like,  _taste_  like.

He could feel saliva collecting underneath his tongue. He swallowed.

"I don't know what I want."

Jona glared at him skeptically and stood, yanking at Cedric's scarf, eyes unapologetic when Cedric gagged as it tightened around his throat..

"Come on. You're going to apologize to everyone who wasted their time looking for your sorry arse."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They finally speak. I'm sure it isn't how any of you envisioned this moment. But, don't worry things will get better. And then get worse.
> 
> Thank you all for the wonderful feedback I've received over that past few weeks. And a special thank you to hanhanphann for the wonderful fanart!


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